Contemplative Foundation for Young Men

Week 1 The Foundation

Noticing Your Life

Telling the truth about where you actually are.

IThe Scripture

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 5:3

Read these slowly, aloud, before you say anything of your own.

“Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”Psalm 139:23–24
“Let us search and examine our ways, and turn again to the Lord.”Lamentations 3:40
“Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves.”2 Corinthians 13:5
IIThe Opposite Passion

Hyperēphania

Pride

The Rational Faculty

Denying your dependence on God — assuming you are morally and existentially self-sufficient.

Pride is the lie that you’ve got it handled — that you don’t really need anyone, not God, not your parents, not the men around you. It dresses up as confidence, but underneath it’s just a refusal to be honest. The desert fathers called pride the root passion: the one all the others grow from, because it’s the one that cannot say ‘I need help.’

‘Poor in spirit’ is the exact opposite. It doesn’t mean weak or sad — it means coming to God with open, empty hands, honest about your need. Jesus says the Kingdom belongs to that man. So week one asks the humblest thing first: look at your real life, without the spin.

IIIConsider Together

Where in your life do you act like you’ve got it all together when you really don’t?

What’s the difference between real confidence and pride — between strength and just pretending?

IVThe Practice & The Skill

Journaling  •  the skill of noticing

Before you can change anything, you have to see it clearly. Week one isn’t about fixing your life — it’s about taking an honest look at it. No shame, no judgment, just a real snapshot of how you actually spend your time, your attention, and your energy.

There’s a story worth telling: a man stuck in a season of overwork — a workaholic who knew it — was outside one freezing morning splitting firewood, praying about how stuck he felt. A neighbor yelled across the street, ‘You’re working too hard.’ Then he walked over, set a bigger axe down, looked the man in the eye, said it a third time, and left. The man’s read on it: God sees me. God knows me. God is right here in the middle of it. But he could only hear it because he’d been paying attention to his life.

The practice this week is the simplest in the whole course: noticing, supported by a few minutes of daily journaling. Take an ‘audit’ of your life — where do your hours and your attention actually go, and do they match what you say matters? Most of us resist this, because there’s usually a gap between the life we want and the life we’re living. This week we don’t close the gap. We just measure it.

VFrom the Fathers

Voices from the desert, the cloister, and the long line of men who walked this road before you.

“Be attentive to yourself, that you may be attentive to God.”

Basil the Great · Homily on “Be Attentive to Yourself” 330–379

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Augustine of Hippo · Confessions 354–430

“I saw all the snares of the enemy spread out over the earth, and I groaned and said, ‘Who can pass through these?’ And I heard a voice saying, ‘Humility.’”

Anthony the Great · Sayings of the Desert Fathers c. 251–356

“Nearly all the wisdom we possess consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”

John Calvin · Institutes of the Christian Religion 1509–1564

“Thank you for becoming small and inferior, so that I do not have to pretend that I am big and superior to anybody.”

Richard Rohr · The Universal Christ b. 1943

VIFor Your Life Today

A word for you, the one who leads — how this lands in a thirteen-year-old's real week.

Thirteen is the age of the curated self. Every young man your guys know is running a highlight reel — the feed, the story, the version of himself he shows at school. This week teaches the one skill underneath everything else in the course: telling the truth about your own life, first to yourself and then to God.

To a teenager, ‘poor in spirit’ can sound like losing. Help them see it’s the opposite. The kid who can admit ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I need help’ is the one who actually grows. Pride keeps a boy stuck. Keep this week shame-free and curious — and lead by sharing your own gap first.

VIIConsider Together

If you took an honest audit of one normal day, what do you think would surprise you most?

Who is one person you could actually say ‘I need help with this’ to this week?

The Practice of the Week
‹ BeginningWeek 2 ›
Week 1 · Student Handout

Noticing Your Life

Journaling · the skill of noticing

Scripture

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 5:3

“Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” — Psalm 139:23–24

“Let us search and examine our ways, and turn again to the Lord.” — Lamentations 3:40

“Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves.” — 2 Corinthians 13:5

The Opposite Passion · Pride Hyperēphania

Denying your dependence on God — assuming you are morally and existentially self-sufficient.

Pride is the lie that you’ve got it handled — that you don’t really need anyone, not God, not your parents, not the men around you. It dresses up as confidence, but underneath it’s just a refusal to be honest. The desert fathers called pride the root passion: the one all the others grow from, because it’s the one that cannot say ‘I need help.’

‘Poor in spirit’ is the exact opposite. It doesn’t mean weak or sad — it means coming to God with open, empty hands, honest about your need. Jesus says the Kingdom belongs to that man. So week one asks the humblest thing first: look at your real life, without the spin.

From the Fathers

“Be attentive to yourself, that you may be attentive to God.”
— Basil the Great · Homily on “Be Attentive to Yourself” (330–379)

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
— Augustine of Hippo · Confessions (354–430)

“I saw all the snares of the enemy spread out over the earth, and I groaned and said, ‘Who can pass through these?’ And I heard a voice saying, ‘Humility.’”
— Anthony the Great · Sayings of the Desert Fathers (c. 251–356)

“Nearly all the wisdom we possess consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
— John Calvin · Institutes of the Christian Religion (1509–1564)

“Thank you for becoming small and inferior, so that I do not have to pretend that I am big and superior to anybody.”
— Richard Rohr · The Universal Christ (b. 1943)

Talk About It

  1. Where in your life do you act like you’ve got it all together when you really don’t?
  2. What’s the difference between real confidence and pride — between strength and just pretending?
  3. If you took an honest audit of one normal day, what do you think would surprise you most?
  4. Who is one person you could actually say ‘I need help with this’ to this week?

The Practice of the Week · The Honest Audit

Each night this week, take five quiet minutes and write a few honest bullet points: where did my hours go today? Where did my attention go when nothing was required of me? No essays, no editing, no judging — just the truth in plain ink, the way a monk keeps a brief account of his day.

  1. At the same time each night, open your journal.
  2. Write three to five bullet points: where your time and attention actually went.
  3. Underline one thing that doesn’t match what you say matters most.
  4. Leave it. Don’t fix it yet. Just notice.

Each day: One line before sleep: Today I noticed…

May you have the courage to look, and the grace to be unashamed of what you see.

Week 1 of X · Ora et Labora