The beginning of a new year. Many people look at the new year as a time to make promises, make resolutions, go on a diet, exercise more, etc. But the Catholic Church celebrates the new year on the first Sunday of Advent in anticipation of the birth of Baby Jesus. Shouldn’t we take this time to look at our spiritual life and make promises and resolutions?
What does your spiritual life look like? Is it where you want it to be? I hope your answer is “of course not”. I know mine is not where I need it to be. There are some things in my spiritual life that needs to change. I need to exercise my faith more. I need to go on a diet of non-spiritual foods that will feed me this year. I need to work on the relationships in my life. I need to work on being a leader more and not merely a follower. I need to show my love more – love for people, love for all of God’s creations.
Over the last year I have changed my faith-ways. I don’t know if it’s me or if it’s the evolution of my spiritual life. It could be the Holy Spirit taking me into a different direction. I seem to like that idea. I have resisted but anymore I think I’ll just do what is put in front of me. If I do that then does that mean that I am doing as he tells me to do? I like to think so.
I know that I plan on putting more emphasis on the sacraments in the next year. I think a lot of times we look at those as a rite of passage but they mean so much more than that and we don’t take advantage of them the way we should. I’ve been considering the sacrament of Baptism recently and have come to realize that this is a promise that we as parents make to our children at their birth that we will raise that child in our faith, in the Catholic Church. It’s not just a nice ceremony where we dress the baby to bring them into the church. We are committing that child to our God and all that goes with that. We commit to taking that child to church, teaching them our faith and guiding them in their growth. When we have a child we commit to raising that child, we can’t sit back and say “I don’t feel like getting up with the baby at 2AM”. We make a commitment to care for that child. Baptism is the same thing. Yeah, it’s a lot of work to get out of bed on a Sunday morning, get ready for church, get the kids ready (don’t forget the snacks) and get to mass on time. It’s hard. But I am a true believer that it is the game changer.
Mom & Meri at their First Communion
I intend to consider each of the sacraments in this light this year.
Speaking of going to church, it’s easy to go to church on Sundays. It’s the thing to do. I love to say that I can get up, go to Mass, go eat breakfast and be back in bed before most people are up to go to church. It’s one of the advantages of multiple Masses in the Catholic Church. But as Catholics we need to do more with our faith than go to church. I know that I am guilty of it, going through the motions, being part of the faith community and then walk out of church fussing about something. Shoot, I’ve walked into church and asked Father to absolve me of my sin that was committed as I walked into church. I did it more as a joke. Thank goodness he took me seriously and even gave me penance. But my point is, our obligation to our faith is not just going to Mass on Sundays. We have to live our faith. That means that when we go to Walmart on Sunday afternoon we don’t come out of there cussing because they only had one cash register open. It means taking food to a family who has a sick family member. It means cooking for a funeral meal. It means speaking about our faith to those who appear lost in their faith-life. I’m not one to push my faith on anyone but it doesn’t hurt to offer our faith experiences to those in need. It means praying. Pray before meals. Pray when you get up in the morning. Turn off the radio in the car and have a conversation with your Lord. Pray the rosary. It can’t hurt. It means to become an active member of the congregation at Mass. Pay attention to what is going on. If you don’t know why or what we are doing, Google it. You know Google knows everything. Or ask someone in your family or in your community.
I need to go on a diet. Yes, I need to lose weight. But I also need to lose a lot of the negativing in my life. I need to watch my mouth and those snarky comments that keep slipping out. I need to be a lot less materialistic and more spiritual. It would be a good thing to quit cussing (although I enjoy it so much). It would be a good thing for only good things to come out of me.
Relationships are very important to me. My relationship with my Lord, his mother, the saints in my life. But my relationships with my friends, family and community need to become more spiritual. I don’t mean that we need to have this faith-meld. But I need to consider my faith in these relationships. I need to have conversations with those I love. If someone makes me mad I need to converse with them about it rather than throw out one of those snarky comments. I need to make sure if this was my last day on earth with that person that I would have no regrets. I need them to understand my relationship with them.
We all have gifts that God has given us. In saying that, we do some things better than others and they do things better than us. I need to realize my gifts from God and lead with those gifts. But I also need to allow others to utilize their gifts and lead me.
And then the greatest goal of mine this year is to show my love more. My love for my family, my friends and my community. I also need to show my love the things that I love: our earth and every soul on it. I need to make sure that the things that matter to me realize that they matter to me. It doesn’t mean that I’m glued to their hip. It does mean that I will pray for them, help them physically when I can, and support them financially if I can. I can always pray for them.
I guess I’ve given myself a lot to work on this year. I’m sure some things will fall out. But it will be interesting to look at this at the beginning of next Advent and see how well I’ve done. I pray that we all have grown quite a bit in the next 52 weeks.
Oh, by the way, I may use this same list on January 1, 2022.