I’ve been thinking recently about religious habits. In part, that’s because as a Quaker I never had a strong foundation of them. We don’t pray the rosary, we don’t recite a creed, heck, we don’t even have a regular “schedule” for running our Meetings for Worship (aka Church). Early Quakers saw the sacraments and other religious rituals as distractions from inner life. Personally, I’m not so sure. As Alexia and I have been attending a deeply spiritual and strongly structured Lutheran Church near us, I’ve started to see religious habits grow in our own behavior, and it is wonderful.
I’ve heard so many Christians, especially ex-Catholics, talk about how religious rituals became empty for them. Devoid of the very spirit they were meant to convey. But, as I start to form these rituals myself, and think about how habits work in the mind, I think that the formation of habits is quite different than habitual execution (ie after the habit is formed). Here’s the section I’ve written up, exploring the ideas, for the book. It’s still a draft, and feedback is welcome.
The downsides of habits
Habits have a significant weakness. Once they are formed, habits are automatic and mindless. With many habits (like pressing the brake when seeing a red light), we may not even realize that we’ve done it – both the cue (red light) and the routine (press break) aren’t conscious. Now, imagine a ‘habit of prayer’ – in which you automatically knelt, said some words out loud or in your head, got up, and continued about your day. To do all of that nonconsciously would be empty; for Christians, it would be a horrific example of following the Law devoid of the Spirit — acts without faith.
So if the executing a habit is spiritually empty, why do we talk about habits at all? It’s because habits can play another role in one’s spiritual life: by set the stage for intentional action. For example, in my life I have the habit of pausing before each meal, bowing my head, clasping my hands – i.e. preparing to pray. What I actually do in prayer isn’t part of the habit at all. I sit and listen for God’s word in my life. Sometimes that takes a few seconds, and sometimes it takes minutes. If I voice any words within, they are unscripted, and based on the moment. The habit of preparing to pray is immensely useful – because it regularly and automatically sets up the situation for me to engage in non-automatic intentional prayer. Without that habit, I would be consciously trying to remember to pray when I’m distracted by other things, or in a hurry to eat.
My example isn’t meant to say that all scripted prayers are empty: rather that the parts that are habitual (the words themselves for example) become non-conscious and non-intentional. What we do in that potential moment of reflection is what really matters. We’ve all been in situations where those moments of potential reflection quickly turn into a review of the day’s todo list. And at other times, they allow us to gain a profound sense of peace and connection with God. It’s not the habitual act itself that matters – it’s what we do with it, through our faith.
Similarly, we can use habits to set the stage for later faithful action. For example, if we have a deeply engrained habit of getting in the car and driving to church on Sunday that is nonconscious and nonintentional, it says nothing about us as a spiritual person (it’s spiritually neutral). But, once there, we can open ourselves up to God’s word, to the community of believers, and grow spiritually. Bringing the Bible with you when you travel can be a habit that itself is neutral, but very is useful because it makes it easier for you to then actually read the Bible.
Finally, while acting on an existing habit, such as going to church, is spiritually neutral, building the habit is not. By intentionally resisting the desire to sleep in, avoid difficult spiritual questions and postpone spiritual growth, we do a conscious and effortful thing. Building habits can help us grow and change ourselves and our routines to better express our faith. In other words, building habits is one of the ways in which we demonstrate our faith by our deeds. We must however be vigilant that once the habit is formed, our faith still accompanies and enlivens those deeds.