Ah, that Heroic Minute

Conquer yourself each day from the very first moment, getting up on the dot, at a fixed time, without yielding a single minute to laziness. If, with God’s help, you conquer yourself, you will be well ahead for the rest of the day. … The heroic minute. It is the time fixed for getting up. Without hesitation: a supernatural reflection and… up! The heroic minute: here you have a mortification that strengthens your will and does no harm to your body.

-St. Josemaria Escriva

As you might have gathered, I am working once again on practicing the Heroic Minute. Yesterday, I woke up from my Sunday Afternoon Nap (it’s a new tradition for me . . . I never used to take naps. But Sunday seems the perfect time. It’s kind of nice.) and drowsily grabbed The Catholic Girl’s Guide (shock) from my nightstand and opened to his ‘rule of life.’ The first line? “Rise at a fixed hour.”

Point taken.

So yes, my renewed effort to practice the Heroic Minute started this morning; getting up at a fixed time (I hope to gradually get up earlier; today it was a not-brilliant, not-terrible 6:40am), showering, putting on tennis shoes (for some reason, this action subconsciously tells me I have to get up and get to work), offering my morning prayers, grabbing a large plastic cup of water (I never drink enough water. Sigh.), and stepping out onto our back deck, into the gorgeous early morning tranquility of my family’s mountainside home. Breathing in the fresh air; soaking up the quiet, the wind, watching the leaves glitter and pulse in the rising sunlight. Petting our poor lovelorn dogs who are always frantic for attention. Contemplating the day ahead. Starting my laundry. In essence, conquering myself right away.

It’s so very strange how this one choice to get up immediately, even when I don’t have to, has a pretty profound effect on my emotional and spiritual disposition. It grants me an epiphany: Oh! I CAN actually deny myself after all!

Ahem. (If my dear Guardian Angel possessed eyes, he would be rolling them.)

And it always seems to make it a hundred times easier to do the right thing during the day, if I drag my sluggish self out of bed first thing, without pausing, hesitating, whining, whimpering, groaning, moaning, rolling over, sighing, studiously weighing the pros and cons of denying or granting myself a few more minutes of sleep (as if I can do anything intelligently or clearly the moment I wake up), pitying my poor tired body–or as St. Josemaria put it, “yielding a single minute to laziness.”

Wonders.

I’ve done this before, you see–kept myself to a schedule, getting up at a set time, denying myself right off the bat, etc.–even though my current life as a young woman at home doesn’t technically require it. I’m always up by the Sarasota Mass at 8am, but that’s no feat of heroics, especially if I’m following along in my pajamas.

And eventually, it always happens: I am very slowly, very gently, very sweetly and kindly convinced by my flesh (and, no doubt, other tempters) that getting up at a fixed time is not at all important. I need my sleep. I don’t need to be proud and insist on getting up at a fixed time when my state in life doesn’t require it. I should be humble, and . . . and . . . ah, this pillow is so comfortable. Doesn’t a morning in pajamas sound lovely?

And, eventually, after weeks or months go by, I begin to wonder: why, exactly, am I suddenly finding it so hard to be zealous, cheerful and disciplined about doing what I ought to do? Why am I finding it so much harder to be regular and fervent in prayer, charitable to others, temperate in self-entertainment and eating, disciplined in caring for my health, humble about my appearance, thorough in my tasks . . . ?

Hmm. How very, very puzzling.

A few days ago, my sister and I were discussing with some friends an exhortation found in the “Subjects for Daily Meditation” of the 1962 Missal, in the context of preparedness for death. This exhortation is a trumpet that should awaken me, a (hapless) soldier in the Church Militant, and rouse me to my feet each morning: ready, willing, and alert to do God’s work, for the salvation of my soul.

Remember, Christian soul, that thou hast this day, and every day of thy life:
God to glorify
Jesus to imitate
The Angels and Saints to invoke
A soul to save
A body to mortify
Sins to expiate
Virtues to acquire
Hell to avoid
Heaven to gain
Eternity to prepare for
Time to profit by
Neighbors to edify
The world to despise
Devils to combat
Passions to subdue
Death perhaps to suffer
And Judgment to undergo

With all this in mind . . . it seems I actually have every reason to be rising early, promptly, and faithfully. Who knew?

So here I go again. I’ll be keeping my tennis shoes close to bed from now on.

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Here are three good articles about practicing the Heroic Minute:

http://catholicexchange.com/responding-heroic-minute

http://catholicexchange.com/how-to-start-your-day-in-holiness

http://catholicexchange.com/rise-shine-5-reasons-get-early-morning