Two Ways of Seeing the Journey

1. The “Ascent” Model — Formation and Growth

The starting point is grace-empowered effort to cultivate the virtues which enables us to receive more of the divine presence.

• In this view, sanctification is like climbing a mountain or learning a craft. The believer grows in virtue step by step, being “trained” (like an athlete or apprentice) until the soul becomes capable of deep union with God.
• Through practice and perseverance, believers cooperate with grace to cultivate virtues such as humility, patience, courage, and love.
• The virtues are synergistic rungs on a ladder of love. God supplies the power, but each act of virtue prepares the soul for a greater measure of divine presence.
• The emphasis is on formation — shaping the soul through prayer, worship, acts of service, and, in sacramental traditions, regular participation in the Eucharist and confession.
• Virtue is not meritorious in itself but disposes the person for fuller participation in grace.
• Catholic, Anglican, and Wesleyan Christians often use this language of growth. Grace initiates the journey and sustains it, yet the believer’s response matters. The soul becomes more Christlike as virtue replaces vice, and love is strengthened through repeated acts of faithfulness.

“Grace perfects nature, it does not destroy it.” — St Thomas Aquinas

Analogy:
A musician who trains in scales (virtues) to be able to play freely with the master (communion).

Scriptural emphasis:
“Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue…” (2 Peter 1:5–7).
“The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21).

Core Practices — “Training the Soul”

These focus on moral, relational, and habitual transformation:

1. Practising the Virtues
   • Humility
   • Patience
   • Charity / Love in action
   • Forgiveness
   • Diligence, temperance, prudence, justice (the cardinal virtues)
   • Faith, hope, and love (the theological virtues)
2. Acts of Mercy and Service
   • Caring for the poor, visiting the sick, almsgiving
   • Volunteering or active ministry — “faith working through love”
3. Sacramental Life and Confession
   • Regular Eucharist as a strengthening grace
   • Confession / Reconciliation to purge sin and re-align the heart
4. Spiritual Reading and Moral Reflection
   • Scripture meditation aimed at imitation of Christ
   • Spiritual direction, examination of conscience, retreats
5. Mortification / Discipline
   • Fasting or abstinence as moral training
   • Simplicity, chastity, self-control

If taken to excess, there is the danger of Legalism or moralism — mistaking steps for the goal

2. The “Overflow” Model — Abiding and Communion

(Orthodox, Lutheran, Evangelical, contemplative Protestant traditions)

The starting point is direct encounter with God and as we get closer to Him, the virtues naturally follow.

• The decisive move is entering communion with God through faith, prayer, sacrament, and the indwelling Spirit.
• Virtues are not acquired so much as manifested: they are the outward signs of the divine life now active within.
• The task of the believer is not to climb toward God but to remove obstacles (the passions, pride, distraction) so that God’s grace may flow unhindered.

→ In this view, communion is the wellspring, and virtue the stream that naturally flows from it.

• Especially in the Eastern Orthodox and many contemplative or evangelical streams, sanctification is described as the fruit of abiding in Christ.
• Here the focus is less on effort and more on receptivity — letting divine life flow through us like sap through a vine (John 15:5).
• Through stillness, prayer, fasting, worship, and openness to the Spirit, the believer learns to dwell in God’s presence. Virtue and good works then flow naturally as the outward expression of inner communion.
• Rather than climbing toward God, the soul rests in Him, and His life bears fruit through ours.
• Here sanctification is about abiding in the divine presence, letting God’s indwelling Spirit transform the heart.
• The focus is not on “building” virtues but on participation and purification — removing inner noise so that God’s grace can flow unhindered.

“Be still and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10

Analogy:
A tree rooted in divine soil naturally bears virtuous fruit.

Scriptural emphasis:
“Abide in me, and you will bear much fruit.” (John 15:5).
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” (Gal. 5:22–23).

🔹 Core Practices — “Opening to the Spirit”

These cultivate awareness, receptivity, and divine indwelling:

1. Prayer of the Heart
   • The Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”)
   • Contemplative or centering prayer
   • Spontaneous conversational prayer (Evangelical)
2. Worship and Liturgy
   • Eucharist as encounter with the living Christ
   • Corporate worship and praise — experiencing God’s presence
3. Fasting and Stillness (Hesychia)
   • Fasting not as self-denial but to quiet the passions
   • Silence, solitude, inner watchfulness (the nepsis tradition)
4. Scripture and Divine Illumination
   • Lectio divina — letting the Word speak inwardly
   • Personal Bible reading for encounter, not just information
5. Repentance as Ongoing Re-Turning
   • Confession as continual re-alignment of the heart
   • Tears, contrition, renewal — “metanoia” as transformation of mind

If taken to excess this leads to Quietism or passivity — neglecting moral formation

Mature spirituality usually brings the two together:

• Though these models emphasise different movements — training and receiving — they are complementary rather than contradictory.
• Most Christians experience both rhythms: moments of active striving and times of peaceful receptivity.
• In both, sanctification means cooperation with grace: God works in us, and we freely respond.

• The Catholic mystics (e.g., John of the Cross, Teresa of Ávila) combine ascetic formation with deep contemplative union.
• The Orthodox monastics (e.g., St. Maximus, St. Gregory Palamas) speak of virtues as the “natural radiance” of the deified soul.
• The Wesleyan “means of grace” include both moral and contemplative disciplines — acts of mercy and works of piety.

“Pray as though everything depends on God; work as though everything depends on you.”
— Often attributed to Augustine or Ignatius, and bridging the two worlds.

Spiritual disciplines and practices in different traditions

Orthodox: Spiritual Disciplines as Tuning to Divine Energy

• In Orthodoxy, the spiritual disciplines (prayer, fasting, almsgiving, confession, hesychasm, liturgy) are not about moral performance or self-improvement, but about alignment.
• Sacraments are believed to convey the substantial presence of Christ bringing spiritual nourishment and growth towards conformity to Christ is given.
• The aim is to clear away the passions (disordered desires) so that the divine energies may work freely within the person.
• Virtue arises as the passions are purified. The focus is on healing and illumination. Moral improvement is a result, not the goal which is full participation in God’s life.
• The effort is real, but the outcome is not self-achieved — it is grace manifesting itself as the heart becomes purified.
• In this sense, spiritual practice is like tuning a musical instrument: the goal is harmony, not achievement.

“We fast not to gain favour, but to regain freedom.” — St. Basil the Great
“Prayer is not asking, but being in God.” — St. Silouan the Athonite

Catholic: Spiritual Disciplines as Cooperation and Growth in Virtue

• Sanctification is mediated through the Sacraments, virtues, and works of love. Catholicism keeps the ascetic element but ties it to virtue ethics: grace perfects nature.
• Through prayer, fasting, sacraments, and moral discipline, the believer cooperates with grace by repeatedly choosing the good until it becomes second nature and so to grow in theological and moral virtues (faith, hope, love; prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude).
• This gives the Catholic spiritual tradition a more moral and developmental tone: holiness is the formation of the person’s character in the likeness of Christ.
• This is both synergistic (we act with grace) and teleological (we are moving toward perfection).
• The practices train the will, enlighten reason, and strengthen desire for the good.
• Virtues are habits — stable dispositions to act well. Grace infuses theological virtues (faith, hope, charity) and elevates natural virtues.

Although these disciplines have some natural moral benefit even outside sacramental grace – virtue ethics is open to pagans and philosophers – but in Christian life they are animated and crowned by infused grace, which orients them toward eternal life, not just moral excellence.

“Grace builds on nature and perfects it.” — St. Thomas Aquinas
“Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving unite the soul with God and conform the heart to Christ.” — Catechism §1434–1435

Protestant: Spiritual Disciplines as Means of Grace

Here the diversity is greater, but we can identify three main currents:

Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist)

• Emphasis: Word and Sacrament as means of grace — not human exercises but channels through which God acts.
• The believer practices prayer, worship, confession, and good works not to gain grace, but as the fruit of grace already given.
• The disciplines are responsive, not instrumental: they don’t tune or train so much as express and reinforce trust.
• Sanctification is God’s ongoing work within, and discipline keeps the believer receptive.
• Humans are passive before God in justification; in sanctification, believers cooperate, but only by grace’s power.
• Emphasise discipleship, sanctification, and growth in holiness through prayer, Scripture, and community life. Sacraments including Baptism and Communion are seen as symbols rather than conveying God’s grace.

“We do not pray to make God gracious, but because He is gracious.” — Martin Luther

So: less about achieving virtue; more about maintaining faith.

Evangelical and Pentecostal

• Emphasis: personal relationship and daily walk with God.
• Disciplines like Bible study, prayer, worship, service, and fellowship are relational practices — expressions of love and trust.
• They “grow faith” but are understood as the Spirit’s work in the believer rather than self-generated effort.
• Still, there’s a strong sense of personal responsibility — obedience as discipleship.

“Work out your salvation… for it is God who works in you” (Phil. 2:12–13) is their balancing text.

Methodist/Wesleyan

• A distinct bridge: John Wesley’s term “means of grace” includes both instituted means (Word, sacrament, prayer) and prudential means (fasting, works of mercy).
• For Wesley, these practices are where prevenient and sanctifying grace meet human effort — an explicitly synergistic view.
• He even called them “channels whereby God conveys grace to souls of men.”
• For Wesley, this meant being filled with perfect love of God and neighbour, even before death.
  After death, this blossoms into glorification. This comes the closest Protestant equivalent to the Eastern theosis
• Good works and holy habits are means of cooperating with grace; sanctification is real growth in love.
• Synergistic — believers must respond actively through discipline, prayer, and love.

So in Methodism, disciplines are simultaneously tuning, training, and trusting.