"Why did God make us?"
I asked my little brother this question as I helped him review his Baltimore Catechism lessons. He responded,
"God made us to know, love, and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next."
I confirmed that his answer was correct with a simple, "Good." and continued quizzing him. I didn't think much about that interaction until a few days later as I began thinking about the coming new year and writing this post.
January 1st marks the beginning of a new calendar year, and for many, is the day New Years Resolutions are supposed to start. These resolutions tend to be things like "work out more", "eat healthier", "get more sleep", "spend less money", and so on. However, if we aren't paying attention we could easily miss this perfect opportunity for a fresh start in our spiritual lives as well. Here are 12 ideas of things we can do to grow towards more perfectly doing what God created us to do...
1. Focus on your Word of the Year
Those who are subscribed to FiliaVeritatis will remember the email update from 11 November 2018, where I recommended the new tradition (inspired by Catholic Girl Talk) of having a Word of the Year. As I said in the email:
"One of the things I really liked that Olivia (from Catholic Girl Talk) did last year, was to choose a word as her Word of the Year, and really reflect on it and live by it throughout the year. So this year, I decided that I would do that as well, and follow the liturgical calendar for my year-long period. As I've been thinking about it, I keep coming back to the word trust, which I've ended up choosing. I know that at this point Advent is quite close, so while you could simply pick a word and let God work with it, you could also take Advent as a time to pray about what your word should be, and then go by the normal calendar year." (click here to read the full update)
If you've already chosen your word, go back and reflect a bit on how it's impacted the way you live. If you decided to take some more time to pray about your word, your time has come to choose one! Either way, I suggest writing your word on a notecard and placing it somewhere where you will see it often.
2. Pray a daily rosary.
The value of this one I cannot stress enough. In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about it not too long ago! Click here to read it: Our Lady's Beads.
3. Pray the Angelus.
This is a fairly easy thing to add to your day. It is a very quick prayer, and is meant to be said at 6am, 12pm, and/or 6pm. You could do all three, or start easier: if you're waking up at 6am, it would be the perfect way to start your day; if you're eating lunch around noon, add it before your blessing for your meal! More information (background and the actual words of the prayer) can be found here.
4. Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
Another quite easy one; the Divine Mercy Chaplet only takes about 5 minutes to pray. It is meant to be said at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the hour of Christ's death on the cross - the hour of mercy. Our Lord gave this prayer to St Faustina, requesting that we meditate on His passion during the time of His death. Here is more information and an explanation of how to pray the chaplet.
5. Keep a journal.
Journaling is a really good way to organize your thoughts, and provides a great opportunity to reflect on your day. Journals are very open-ended: you could have a physical one, which you can decorate, doodle in, and write entries by hand, or you could have an online one, if you need to have a bit more of the on-the-go convenience. A while ago I found the (iPhone) app GridDiary which has a really neat set-up: there is a 8-square grid for each day, and each box has a prompt in it (which you choose). This would be a good way to keep yourself a bit more accountable for any "resolutions" you make - just add it in question form to one of the squares! I know it can be really difficult to remember to write in a journal/diary, and even when you remember finding the time to do it can be a challenge. Keeping a journal would require a bit of planning, and time set aside specifically for your to write and reflect. It is so wonderful and fruitful to be able to go back and trace your progress through a certain struggle, or read what you wrote about an experience the day it happened.
6. Do a nightly examination of conscience.
There are many saints who have encouraged a nightly examination of conscience. This basically just means taking the time to go back through your day to take note of where you messed up, and ask God for forgiveness as well as help in not making those mistakes again. This practice also includes praying the act of contrition. Some people like to keep a notebook that they'll write in as they do their examination each night and then bring the notebook with them to confession. There are lots of fantastic resources out there if you would like to learn more about the sacrament of confession or different methods for doing an examination of conscience; here is one of them.
7. Go to confession more regularly.
Yes, I know. The Church only requires us to go to confession twice a year. But when you really think about what the sacrament does for your soul, it suddenly makes so much more sense why you would go more often than that. We are all sinners, and none of us can get rid of those sins or work to stop doing them on our own. How blessed we are to have a God who is happy to wipe our souls clean for us, though, even inviting us to come to Him for purification no matter what we've done to hurt Him! Pope St John Paul II, who was known to receive the sacrament of confession once a week, said: “It would be illusory to desire to reach holiness, according to the vocation that each one has received from God, without partaking frequently of this sacrament of conversion and sanctification,” that, together with the Eucharist, “accompanies the path of the Christian towards perfection,” he added. (Quoted from CNA). It may not be an easy thing to do, but if we remember that it truly is Christ whom we are talking to, who wishes more deeply than we can imagine for us to come to Him so that He can cleanse our souls, and if we approach the sacrament with humility, it will become easier over time, and we will come to understand better the importance of confession. After all, if we are striving to know, love, and serve God better, we can only do that with a soul that is clean and pure, ready to be receptive to Our Loving Father.
8. Cultivate deeper friendships.
Friendships are incredibly beautiful relationships - or at least they have the potential to be. Perhaps this year you will choose to focus more on building better relationships with your friends, or even making new friends with those people whose good qualities you've particularly noticed. I don't have very much concrete advice for how to do that right now, but that will (hopefully) be coming in a later post.
9. Send handwritten just-because letters.
Here is one really cool, unique idea that I've really been thinking about. Handwritten letters are considered pretty old-fashioned today, but it is a beautiful practice. Letter-writing is truly an art, and one that may take a little bit of practice. But it is SUCH a special feeling to receive a letter in the mail, especially when there wasn't any real reason for the person to write it. Likewise, it can be quite fun and relaxing to write a letter, decorate the envelope, and send it, knowing how happy the person will be when they open the mailbox. And what a good way to grow a friendship! If this letter-writing interests you, perhaps you will take the challenge I read on a blog recently: to write and send 52 letters in a year - one per week. I don't think this necessarily would entail writing to 52 different people, but I think it does encourage writing to as many different people as you can. And you don't have to mail every letter either. If it's to someone you'll see, you can try to find a way to slip it in their bag or on their desk for them to find once you've left. No matter how you do it, letter-writing would be a very cool new hobby.
10. Become an early-riser.
I know this one sounds a bit crazy. To be clear, though, I don't mean that you need to somehow change yourself to love waking up early or to make it so that you would rather not sleep in. What I do mean is that you choose to start your day a bit earlier. Two years ago I went on a retreat with a group from my school to a monastery, and the monks there basically start their day with Vigils (part of the Liturgy of the Hours) around 3 in the morning. So, while we were there, we started our days then too. I was shocked to find how much I actually liked waking up so early (not so much in the moment, at 3 am) - by 10am we had already been up for 7 or 8 hours, and prayed Vigils, Lauds, Terce, attended Holy Mass, eaten breakfast, and done an hour of meditation! Now, these monks also go to bed quite early. And my group was all able to do this while we were there largely because we weren't doing a whole lot of work during the day (since it was a retreat). So most likely, waking up at 3am every morning isn't very practical for most of us. But that doesn't mean we should reject the idea entirely. You'd be surprised how many people actually do go to bed a little earlier and wake up earlier, and how much they encourage others to do so, too. If you normally wake up at 6am, maybe you could go to bed one or two hours earlier and subsequently get up that much earlier. This would give you an extra hour or two of time in the morning - when everyone else is still asleep and it's quiet, when our brains are most alert and therefore, when you'll be most productive. There are so many things you could use this time for! Maybe you'd begin doing morning prayers, whether from the Divine Office or different ones (a WONDERFUL way to begin your day, by the way); you could read a bible passage each morning; you could work on writing your letters if you choose to begin doing that; you could pray your daily rosary; there are endless possibilities! It will very likely be hard at first, but everyone I've heard who does this said it gets much easier and none of them regret the decision to start their day earlier.
11. Bring back regular penances.
(This one taken directly from The Catholic Company's website) "Living a penitential life, even outside of Advent and Lent, is the Catholic way of life. All of the Church’s saints performed penances habitually, either internally or externally, great and small, for themselves and for others. Many do not know that the Fridays outside of Lent are also days of abstinence and fasting. While the Church law against eating meat on the Fridays outside of Lent was lifted by the U.S. bishops, it is meant to be substituted with some other form of penance in order to continue to give special reverence to the day of the week on which Our Lord died on the cross. What penitential practice can you do each Friday in 201[9]? Maybe it is tried-and-true abstinence from meat, or perhaps another penitential practice such as praying the Stations of the Cross, or even acts of service for the less fortunate. Be creative. Remember that penances aren’t meant to be pleasant at first, but the graces that come from them grow sweeter with time." - The Catholic Company Additional resource here.
12. Spend more time in with Jesus in Adoration.
The Adoration Chapel is honestly one of my favorite places. It is so peaceful! I remember listening to a homily in which the priest said that just as we go to our mothers, fathers, siblings, and friends in our happiest joys and lowest sorrows, we ought to rush into the loving arms of our Heavenly Father, who is waiting for us in the Adoration Chapel. No matter how often you go right now, perhaps this year you'll strive to go for five more minutes. Adoration, like all things that involve Christ, is literally life-changing. It will always be worth your time.
I hope you've enjoyed reading these ideas, and have gotten something out of them. I'd love to hear which ones you decide to implement in your own life, as well as any other ideas you may have!! Comment below!