MANILA, Philippines – The spiritual facet, as in the case of the physical facet, is listed as a “driver,” thereby indicating that the two strategic priorities under it need to be pursued in order to help deliver the outcomes that would be crucial for actualizing the vision. It is therefore considered right after the physical facet, thereby signalling how important the inter-connection is between the strategic priorities listed under both facets.

The first strategic priority under the spiritual facet is put forward as follows: “Deepen my faith and inner life.” Since we are talking about a deepening, we are presuming the gift of faith and of the inner life (one of friendship and intimacy with God) that comes as a consequence of faith. What this strategic priority or objective seems to be saying is as follows: “Because I believe in God, I must move ahead, taking on earnestly all the consequences of my faith.”

How might this be accomplished?

The initiative specified is the following: “Improve the quality of prayer and of fulfilment of other norms of piety.” This initiative accepts the proposition that no one can get anywhere close to God without prayer and other acts of piety, which include the Sacraments, and in particular the Eucharist.

Prayer involves raising our heart and mind to God such that we acknowledge His presence in our life and in our work; and being conscious of God’s presence, we can enter into conversation and loving dialogue with Him. This may happen spontaneously; however, it is necessary also to set aside some time, preferably once in the morning and again in the early evening, which is devoted exclusively to prayer.

Other norms of piety also need some time to be set aside for them. Participation in the Eucharistic celebration should become the center of our day. A few moments should also be reserved for reading the Gospel and some spiritual book. Recitation of one part of the Rosary and contemplation of the mysteries highlighted by the other parts should also feature in our daily schedule.

All these have one over-riding purpose, which is to get us more intimately connected with God, the source of all power and grace.

How may we measure such intimate connection with God? We can use a rating scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the most intimate) to evaluate the quality of our prayer and of our other norms of piety: This would represent an attempt to “quantify” what is essentially qualitative. Absolute honesty is called for here; but since this is a matter between God and us, presumably we can be absolutely honest in this regard.

The use of such a rating scale in 2010 may give an honest answer of only 2. The target for 2015 should be much higher than 2: In this instance, the targeted number is 6: This is far from perfect; but then, who can be perfect in our personal relationship with God while we are in this valley of tears?

In this illustrative case, the performance scorecard for the first strategic priority under the spiritual facet includes all three elements: An initiative; a measure; and a target. It should be noted that the measure is an attempt to put a quantitative garb to something which is essentially qualitative.