Master Class on Self Mastery

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Master Class on Self Mastery

• The Art of Discipline

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Discipline and the world

• We observe a consumer-driven, pleasure-seeking
  society, based on having whatever they feel like.
• We observe alarming increases in out of control
  behaviour, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, high risk
  sexual activity, assault...
• Self Mastery or discipline seems like an archaic
  concept and a wet blanket!
• The search for happiness goes on apart from God.

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Do as I say not as I do!

• If you read the lives of great people, you find
  that the first victory they ever won was over
  themselves...
• All great, successful people have discipline

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Chastity and Discipline

• The following acronym HALT identifies some key
  factors that contribute to us falling into this
  kind of sin.
• H unger. Ask a person who is in a habitual sexual
  sin about their eating habits, and inevitably
  youll find its all over the place.
• A nger. People who are upset, frustrated and
  stressed are very vulnerable to this.
• L oneliness. Feeling lonely, depressed, stressed
  are perhaps the most important precursors to
  sexual sin. After all these actions ultimate seek
  the intimacy of the sexual embrace.
• T iredness. We seem to never have enough time or
  adequate rest. This is the devils favourite
  moment to attack and the time when we give in
  most easily.

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What is Discipline?

• Means to grip or take hold of
• Aristotle says its the ability to test desire by
  reason. The intellect vs the will.
• Discipline is doing what you dont want to do
  when you ought to do it!
• When we are foolish we want to conquer the world.
  When we are wise we want to conquer ourselves.

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Start with yourself

• A sagely old man said of this Looking back, my
  life seems to be one long obstacle course, with
  me as the chief obstacle. Jack Parr.
• The first step to making any ground in the area
  of discipline is accepting responsibility for who
  you are.
• Psychologist reports on prisoners.
• AA the first step is to admit that you have a
  problem.
• Challenge your excuses. List their reasons. Then
  challenge and dismiss each one. Dont leave
  yourself any reasons to quit.

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Set your priorities

• Think about the top three or four areas of life
  that are most important to you.
• Write them down, along with the disciplines that
  you must develop to keep growing and improving in
  those areas.
• By writing down your priorities, you can release
  yourself from everything else that is ultimately
  not important, to follow through on what is.
• Develop a plan to make the disciplines a daily or
  weekly part of your life. Discipline is not a one
  off event.
• Develop systems and routines.

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List the reasons

• List all the reasons and benefits of practising
  the disciplines youve just listed.
• Post the benefits someplace where you will see
  them daily.
• On those days you dont want to follow through,
  re-read your list.

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Remove the temptation

• Hunt for the Red October. Sean Connery line
• When Christopher Columbus arrived at the new
  found land, he burned his boats to inspire his
  men!
• We need to burn our bridges when it comes to
  sin.
• The exhortation of Christ in Sundays Gospel is
  very clear on this. (cut off anything that leads
  you to sin)
• www.k9webprotection.com (a good internet filter)
• People, friends, places, trashy movies etc...
  this applies across the board.

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Becoming Accountable

• Everyone knows that the easiest way to get into
  exercise is to have someone your accountable to,
  eg someone you meet.
• Regular Confession will make you accountable very
  quickly. Plus there is sacramental grace
  available.
• Bring a friend with you if you tend to drink to
  much, or flirt to much... Use the computer in a
  more public area than your room.
• Theres something fishy about Stephens car...
• (explained that the fish on my car keeps me
  accountable for my driving behaviour.)

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The spiritual battle plan...

• Chastity is not possible without the Eucharist.
• The Eucharist is the fuel of true love.
• Have an intention at mass.
• Adoration of the blessed sacrament is an
  inexhaustable source of holiness.
• You will soon come to know what true love is.
• We all want to look like a knight, but we dont
  want to bleed like one...
• JPII 20 visits a day!
• Journaling

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The Plan Part 2

• Develop that personal prayer time.
• Spend 5 minutes every morning (do it by the clock
  if you have to!)
• Pray for souls as you fall asleep.
• Carry a rosary, medals.
• Spend that time driving in prayer. Switch off the
  radio.
• Guardian angel, St Michael, Patron Saint
• St Joseph
• Mary, true femininity. The more she dwells in a
  soul, the more the Holy Spirit, in fact the more
  the Trinity enters in!

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Other spiritual helps...

• Holy souls
• Nuns (the heavy ammo in this spiritual fight)
• Fasting sharpens our prayers.
• Putting off rewards is a great way to stay
  focussed on the task at hand. It could be
  delaying opening your mail, checking that sms, TV
  program, favourite snack etc.
• Tame your tongue next time you want to lash
  out, hold your tongue for five minutes (even just
  one if that seems too hard!!)
• Lent in the Catholic Church is for our benefit in
  this area.

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Stay Busy...

• Stay busy and engaged in meaningful things. Each
  time the devil finds you (metaphorically), he
  should find you busy and go away!!
• Keep your mind active and focused. A To-Do List
  is perhaps the best way of making the most use of
  time and avoiding distractions.

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Disciplined Emotions

• Understand the HALT warnings.
• Be willing to look at self esteem issues.
• Feelings of inferiority comparing ourselves to
  perfect people all the time
• Feelings of powerlessness feeling our life is
  out of control, their is no progress in our
  lives.
• We need to commit ourselves to firming up our own
  sense of worth and value.

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Start small

• What you are going to be tomorrow, you are
  becoming today.
• List five areas in your life that lack
  discipline.
• Place them in order of your priority for
  conquering them.
• Take them on, one at a time.
• Secure resources, such as books and tapes, that
  will give you instruction and motivation to
  conquer each area.
• Ask a person who models the trait you want to
  possess to hold you accountable for it.
• Spend 15 minutes each morning getting focused in
  order to get control of this weak area in your
  life.
• Do a five minute check-up on yourself at midday.
• Take five minutes in the evening to evaluate your
  progress.
• Allow sixty days to work on one area before you
  go to the next.
• Celebrate with the one who holds you accountable
  as you show continued success.

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Organise your life

• Set your priorities
• Place priorities in your calendar
• Allow a little time for the unexpected
• Do projects one at a time
• Organise your work space
• Work according to your temperament
• Use your driving time for light work and growth
• Develop systems that work for you
• Always have a plan for those minutes between
  meetings
• Focus on results not on the activity

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Start now

• All worthwhile men have good thoughts, good
  ideas, and good intentions, but precious few of
  them ever translate those into action John
  Hancock Field.
• Lord Nelson, the English Naval Commander. He was
  responsible for destroying Napoleons' entire
  fleet. Yet he suffered sea-sickness his whole
  life.
• Often we experience a little sea-sickness in
  life, we never seem to find the right, ideal
  conditions to begin. Yet the challenge of
  discipline never seems to find an ideal moment to
  begin.

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Why Does God give us these temptations?

• The struggle of temptation trains us in
  faithfulness and love.
• We start practising and preparing to make a gift
  of ourselves, to gain self mastery so that we can
• Doing bench presses at the gym. Resistance builds
  muscle fibres... So it goes with our yes to
  loving purely and selflessly.
• Only the chaste man or woman is capable of
  authentic love.
• St Francis De Sales says that marriage is the
  greatest mortification on earth!

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Why Does God give us these temptations?

• It lets us earn merit in heaven
• We often dont think about heaven.
• Heaven seems like some eternal Church service!!
• St Paul says though that eye has not seen, nor
  ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of
  man what God has in store for those who love
  him.
• Like a soldier who has fought hard is honoured
  when he arrives home, so temptation is not given
  to us unless there is an opportunity for merit
  and grace.
• The devil tempts so that he can ruin, God tempts
  so that he can crown. St John Chrysostom

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Why Does God give us these temptations?

• Penance for past sins
• God always forgives
• Love always wants to make amends for injuries and
  offences caused
• The devil sometimes uses our past sins against us
• Each time we resist temptation there is much
  grace merited.
• Acts of resistance against these are acts of love
  acts of reparation.
• No matter what temptation you go through,
  temptation of lust, anger or pride, we can apply
  this rule to all of them.

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Why Does God give us these temptations?

• More frequent prayer
• If we prayed every time we were tempted, think
  about how much more praying we would do every
  day.
• Dont just pray against the temptations, pray for
  the temptations. If its an impure thought, pray
  for the person, the subject of that thought.
• Spiritually adopt these people.
• Love is victorious because it prays. - JPII

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Why Does God give us these temptations?

• For the growth in humility.
• With humility we realise how dependent we are on
  God and that without Him we are nothing.
• Its only in humility that God can use us.
• When a child witnesses danger, they cling all the
  more tightly to their dad. So God allows
  temptations so that we see how weak and prone to
  falling we are and that we would cling more
  tightly to him.

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Why Does God give us these temptations?

• To prove your love for God.
• Temptation comes from the Greek word to test.
• Refining fire, reveals the true value of the
  metal. So temptation burns away much of our self
  love and thinking about how good we are, cause we
  realise through it how weak we are.
• Each time we resist temptation we demonstrate our
  strength and our love for God.
• St Francis Temptation is a ring by which the
  lord espouses the soul of his servant to
  himself... It requires a choice, an act of the
  will.

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Why Does God give us these temptations?

• So that we will think about sex (you heard it
  right!)
• We joke about it, we sing songs about it, we
  laugh about it, but we rarely stop and think
  about why weve been given these powerful drives.
  Why did God make us this way?
• JPII tells us That man cannot find himself
  except through a sincere giving of himself. When
  we make this total gift of ourselves whether
  married or single or celibate, we fulfil the
  meaning of our being and our existence. This gift
  of sexuality is the call to love in the image of
  Gods likeness.

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Throwing away the bandaids...

• When you desire to exercise you no longer need
  the discipline of exercising!
• Do we desire to go to heaven?
• Do we desire to be chaste?
• Chastity is the road map to the proper ordering
  and fulfillment of the deepest longings of our
  hearts.
• for intimacy and relationship, and the desire to
  be loved and to love others... we are tapping
  into the wellspring of pure joy!

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The redemption of our lusts

• The remedy for lust is a conversion of heart!
  When we begin to truly understand the dignity of
  the human person and the truth about our call to
  love, we no longer desire to lust.
• Lust is a weak, poor, whimpering whispering thing
  when compared with the richness and energy of
  desire which will arise when lust has been
  killed. -C.S. Lewis
• Only when you empty yourself for the good of a
  beloved will you see that all other joy is an
  illusion.

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Dare to love...

• The Canadian nursery story...
• The best time to plant a tree is twenty five
  years ago, the next best time is today!
• So plant the tree of discipline in your life
  today.