“What is the relationship between discipleship and religious practices?  The latter sustain the former…  The error is to think these things are the Christian life… Insofar as prayer, reading, sacraments, and spiritual direction support genuine Christian living, that is, Christian attitudes, relationships, choices, and actions, they are useful.  When they become an escape from the more difficult demands of Christian living, they are the corruption of discipleship.”

–Brennan Manning