Spiritual Resolutions Every Catholic Should Make This New Year
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With the new year, comes the opportunity for resolutions.
Ways to start fresh. New hobbies to pick up. Goals you want to meet. Habits you want to break. Opportunities you want to begin pursuing. There is a lot out there that you can pick from to add to your New Year's Resolutions List.
In the wake of the overwhelming amount of tangible resolutions you can make, i.e. dealing with things of the body, I think it is also important—if not more important—to make some resolutions in relation to the wellness of your soul too.
People don’t often think about spiritual resolutions when they make their New Year’s Resolutions List. In the sea of changes and goals you want to achieve, it can get easily lost.
This year, I invite you to put it at the forefront.
Below are some ideas for spiritual resolutions. They may not change how you look on the outside, but I can promise you that picking even one of these up and sticking to them will change you on the inside.
And if we can pick anything to grasp to in turning away from the number on the scale and toward Heaven, it is that our relationship with the Lord will always supersede how we look in the mirror or where we are in our career.
It may require more work in conviction, dedication, trust, and motivation than going to the gym a certain amount of times a week, but holding on to a Spiritual Resolution, intentionally choosing to let the Holy Spirit direct every single day of your life, will never be something you regret, and it will never be something that is an end for its own means.
We are all meant to shoot for sainthood. You are meant to shoot for sainthood. The Lord wants us all close to Him. He wants you, especially, to be close to Him. And that relationship, like all of our most important relationships, requires our time and attention on a daily basis.
Ideas for Spiritual Resolutions:
Memorize all of the Rosary prayers (...by praying the Rosary daily!)
Read a theological book per month
Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day for one month straight
Be within the presence of the Eucharist every day for one month straight
Go to Daily Mass at least once a week outside of Sunday Mass
Celebrate at least five saint days per month for the entire year
Read the daily readings every morning for the whole year
Pick a new novena every month and pray it
Consecrate yourself to Mother Mary before the end of the year
Consecrate yourself to Saint Joseph before the end of the year
Adopt a morning dedication to the Lord every morning for the whole year
Schedule going to confession once a month for the whole year
Pick up a weekly holy hour at your parish
Establish a prayer corner in your home and use it every day
Pick something to fast from each month for a specific intention
Resolve to stop downplaying or omitting how you really feel in your prayer with the Lord
My advice would be to take this list and most definitely not try and do it all.
Choose one thing, or two if you really want, and dedicate yourself to sticking with that. It is not about how many you do, but about how well you carry them out.
And in the event that you miss a day, or three, or a week, please, please, please, don’t give up. Please don’t take that as a “sign” that it just wasn’t something you were meant to do. Pick up where you left off. And keep going as if there wasn’t a day that had been missed. The Lord sees your efforts and He rejoices in you choosing Him, the only judgment of “not being good enough” is coming from you. He does not think that. Even if you have a totally haphazard streak of praying the Rosary daily, or mess up multiple times in completing a novena.
A bad prayer is not one that is said imperfectly, it is one that is not said at all.
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