“Look, listen, and feel.”  These are the basic instructions of any CPR course.  Why?  Because we know from experience that in order to help a person who appears to be in physical distress, it is important first to see what is really going on before intervening, lest one do more harm than good.   Let’s look more closely at the caring act of providing CPR to see what spiritual lessons we might find.

After shaking a person in need and asking:  “Annie, Annie, are you all right?”—to make sure she is not just napping—the helper feels carefully for a pulse.  She then lowers an ear to the person’s mouth with a cocked head in order to look, listen, and feel for signs of breathing.  Can she see the chest rise and fall? Does she feel the victim’s breath on her cheek? Can she hear the sounds of breathing? Only once these questions are answered can the helper decide which course of action is best.

Paying attention to what is really going and checking things out with all the tools at our disposal are important lessons for all of life, but particularly for the spiritual life. It has been my experience as a spiritual companion and as one who has been well-companioned myself, that particularly because things are not always as they seem, it is important to check things out before trying to fix, change, or “improve” something in our lives.

Given the hustle and bustle and demands of everyday life, I wonder if I am attentive enough to what is really going on in my spiritual life?  I wonder, too, if I might need to be shaken up a bit to find out if I am merely sleeping or if I am really out of it. “Eddie, Eddie, are you all right?” I wonder further:  What about my spiritual pulse?   How would I check it?  Am I “breathing?” Does the Spirit’s breath cause my chest to rise from within?

As Catholics near the season of Lent and as all people of good will think about our spiritual growth, we might do well first to exercise a spirituality of CPR before we attempt a remedy for the season, such as giving up chocolate.  If we find out what is truly going on inside us, perhaps we might decide to spend more quiet time alone or more time with our families or to forgive someone or ourselves….

A closing thought:  Since it is often difficult to shake ourselves or check our own “pulse” or even to see if we are “breathing” adequately, we might do well to seek out a spiritual companion or friend who knows how to “look, listen, and feel.”

The other morning while running on a treadmill at the local gym, I was jarred out of my early morning daze by a line sung by Chanticler, a famous men’s a cappella group who were performing for the Today Show.  The line that stirred me was one I, like many of you, have heard and sung a hundred times or more: “…Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel…”

This familiar phrase from the 19^th century Christmas classic, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, written originally by Methodist composer John Wesley in the 18^th century, eloquently evokes subtle but profound messages of the Christmas season: that God became human…better: that God was pleased to become human…better still: that God was pleased to dwell with us–Jesus, our Emmanuel.  And still another subtle message hit home for me: That we humans are pleased by this as well.  I spent much of the rest of the day reflecting on what it means that God, in Jesus, was (is) pleased to dwell among us and asking myself: how do I show my pleasure that this is so?

This experience has caused me to pay closer attention to the subtle theological messages of the Advent and Christmas songs (carols) we hear and sing in both sacred and secular settings and to recognize that they can be moments of unexpected grace—even in the gym.  Rather than taking them for granted, perhaps I can be more attuned to their poetic theology.  Perhaps, too, I can think about singing them over and over again, not as a chore, but rather as an opportunity for prayerful Ignatian repetition and grace.

I am curious to hear from my fellow readers of IgnatianSpirituality.com: What are the Christmas messages that arise for you when you let yourself experience the carols of this season?