How to tell if your spiritual life is great or not

Having and maintaining a great spiritual life while dealing with the distractions and issues of life is no easy feat. You try your best all the while wondering if you are even doing well. You dont have to wonder anymore, thanks to French Trappist monk Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard. Here is how you can now tell if

Here is how:

Check for peace

In his popular book, The Soul of the Apostolate, the monk writes that the presence or lack of peace is a great way to examine one's spiritual life.

He encourages readers to "Find out if the soul has genuine peace, not simply the peace which the world gives, or the peace that results from absence of struggle."

"If it has none," he recommends trying "to give the soul a relative peace, in spite of all its difficulties. This is the foundation of all direction. Calmness, recollection, and confidence also come in here."

Examine your prayer life

In Chautard's words, "Find out how the soul prays, and in particular, analyze its degree of fidelity to mental prayer, its method of mental prayer, the obstacles met with, and the profit drawn from it. What value does it get out of the Sacraments, the liturgical life, particular devotions, [spontaneous] prayers, and the practice of the presence of God?"

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How well are you practicing self-denial?

According to the monk, the practice of self-denial is a great way to evaluate one's spiritual life. He further notes that how self-denial is practiced is extremely important asking, is it "through hatred of sin or love of God?"

He adds, "How well is custody of the heart kept: in other words, what amount of vigilance is there in the spiritual combat, and in preserving the spirit of prayer throughout the day?"

Is your focus on God or earthly things?

After going through these three things, Chautard encourages the examiner to strive for high ideals.

He said,"As soon as you have collected enough material to classify the soul and to recognize its weak points, as well as its strength of character and temperament and its degree of striving for perfection, find out the best means of reviving its desire to live more seriously for Jesus Christ and of breaking down the obstacles which hinder the development of grace in it. In a word, what we want here is to get the soul to aim higher and higher all the time: always excelsior."

The French monk recommends using these four things to examine one's spiritual life every month. He believes that this monthly evaluation will help with the storms of life.