A Friend[1] recently posted a long entry dealing with some thoughts on boot camp, fencing, insanity, and personal/spiritual development.[2] Much of her ideas I cannot respond to, I have not the requisite experience. But her comparison of the drills of boot camp, basing my understanding of said drilling solely on descriptions I have heard and/or read over the years, to the asceticism of monks or to spiritual exercises such as the rosary rings true to my mind. Again, not having been a monk, I can speak only of the descriptions of others, but of the rosary I am on more familiar ground. The idea of the rosary is not "vain repetition," but that the repetition can aid our wandering minds in an attempt to focus. Similarly, Friend describes it being advisable to find some focus for one's eyes when attempting to stand at attention. The focus is superficially a worthless act, it services not for itself, but as a means to achieve some end (maintaining the proper position). So too, the rosary's repetition helps draw us back helps us "be actively attentive" to use Friend's words, and return to the task at hand when we wander. Similarly, in the lives of some saints, you see severe penance, again aimed at focusing the mind on the true goodâ¦
- Identity concealed to respect privacy.
- Similarly, a reference is not provided here, as that would be necessarily identifying