How to grow in virtue - A Carthusian Way

Have you ever struggled to grow in one virtue or another? It’s a hard and humbling task. 

Often we fail because we try to grow in our own strength and for our own benefit.

Here is a method outlined by A Carthusian in the book ‘A Life in God’s Presence - A Simple Approach to Prayer‘

‘Never forget that the moral virtues cannot be ends in themselves. No created thing is there for its own sake and is itself an end. And this includes virtue. To practice virtue just for the sake of virtue is a narrow and paltry ideal, discouraging because of the impossibility of realising it. Whoever flees the world for the sake of a pathetic happiness and believes himself or herself perfect on this account, or else remains in the world so as to struggle against it, thereby feeling he or she is a conqueror and gaining a reputation, will never attain true nobility but only the outward appearance of virtuous ness. Such people will never rise above the natural level of ‘good works,’ performed with the aim of raising themselves above themselves. The goal of  the Christian Is supernatural and far beyond the reach of any merely human tactic or manoeuvre. We can attain it only through divine love, which constantly grows through interior contact with God and, to the extent it grows, causes all the other virtues to grow.

One must always pray.

Repeating as often as possible during the day the essential act of recollection, we each time reawaken and revivify within us the spirit of prayer. The words of St. John become a shining star and bright light in our life: ‘God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him’ ( John 4:16)

And so I gradually create an inner solitude in which I can always listen closely to the voice of my beloved, who himself has promised me this closeness: ‘I will bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her’. (Hosea 2:14)’