Happy New Year friends! As I mentioned in my 7 Quick Takes the last two weeks, I love celebrating the first Sunday of Advent not only as the start of my Christmas countdown but also as New Year's Day. Several years ago I began the tradition of setting "spiritual resolutions" for the upcoming liturgical year. As a Catholic I am called to keep Christ in Christmas, to celebrate Christmas with a focus on God and the realization that the Incarnate God lives with us not only on December 25th but every day of the year. Advent prepares me not only to welcome Christ into my Christmas celebration, but to continue welcoming Him into my life on a daily basis. I have blogged in the past about my spiritual goals in 2011 (goals for 2012) and in 2009 (goals for 2010).
So what will I be doing in 2014? I've decided it to keep it simple this year with just two spiritual resolutions:
(1) Embrace JourneyLiving and live my goals with intentionality.
The main reason I have only two spiritual resolutions this year is because of my JourneyLiving philosophy. Much of my philosophy for JourneyLiving and the goals I chose to set came from Matthew Kelly's Rediscovering Catholicism, a book which I highly recommend. By taking the time to examine my life and evaluate my priorities, I determined five goals for my life which are unchanging. These are the North on my compass. The goals for my entire journey. In 2014 I want to live these goals intentionally, I want them to not be an afterthought or a byproduct but the initial aim of everything I do. The "action step" for this goal is in the form of a daily examen where I will reflect on my day and what I did toward achieving each of these goals.
(2) Cultivate and continue spiritual friendships.
The simple fact of the matter is having spiritual friendships makes your faith life easier. Now I know that the Christian life is not always an easy life, and that God did not intend the Christian life to be the easy life all of the time. But I also believe that there is a reason God created the Church, there is a reason Jesus said "where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am with them" (Mt. 18:20). That reason is fellowship, God did not create man to be alone, He created us to be in communion with one another, to support one another, and this year I am to cultivate friendships (both old and new) which will support my spiritual life.
"I’m participating in the KEEP CHRIST in CHRISTMAS Blog Link-Up 2013 sponsored by the Catholic Bloggers Network.
UPDATE for 2014! - I am linking this to the Catholic Bloggers Network Advent LinkUp 2014.
UPDATE for 2014! - I am linking this to the Catholic Bloggers Network Advent LinkUp 2014.
Be sure to visit Catholic Bloggers Network and the link-up for many other great posts! Many thanks to the Catholic Bloggers Network for hosting, and to Monica for coordinating!
I began life as a SAHM this year; something rare now in the UK. I prayed for a friend, a faithful Catholic, that I could share that walk with and who would help re-energies my faith. The same day I met a woman in the playgroup's carpark who had just come to the area, officer's wife, and had actually just started at my Church! I thank God for that friendship every day. We also have inter-generational fellowship. We have an after mass coffe group with a focus on families with tiddlies, but that older members of the congregation come to. We are so grateful for their wisdom.
ReplyDeleteThat's excellent! God definitely brings people into our lives at the right moments. That is excellent that your parish has a coffee group. I don't have a parish perse at the moment, but the one I most often attend does have a coffee & donut time after their 10am Mass. Unfortunately at the 5pm which I attend there's no fellowship following.
DeleteI endorse your resolutions and join with you as a spiritual friend in living our spirituality intentionally. Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThank you Nancy! I am definitely trying to get "into" the Catholic blogosphere more as means of finding some of those spiritual friendships I've been seeking.
DeleteI love the idea of Spiritual resolutions! Spiritual friendships is something I need to work on too!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you like the resolution idea. And spiritual friendships is definitely a necessary but difficult to find thing in our lives.
DeleteYour goals for your Journey and Path are inspiring! I have the Kelly book you mentioned. I need to read it...if I can find it! I need to work on goals too as I feel rushed and unfocused these days! Thank you for your wonderful reminders to set goals and achieve them! Have a blessed Advent!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I achieve mine all the time! (especially the short term ones) but I still think goals are worth having! I think especially with our long term goals it is important that other people know about them and help hold us accountable.
DeleteHi Lauren, when I first read your comment about living with intentionality it rang a bell and I couldn't think where I've heard it before. Then you mentioned Matthew Kelly and then I knew! I love his work and have read his books too. I've also heard him quoted on Relevant Radio and I think it's an important message that we do live with intentionality. Helps keep us focused Christ. May God bless you abundantly with his graces and blessings this Advent Season.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of his other books, only Rediscovering Catholicism (and admittedly only parts of that) but maybe I will try to read something else by him soon.
DeleteBoth are great resolutions! I actually have Matthew Kelly's book...and although I have read a couple of his books, I haven't finished this one...maybe it's time!
ReplyDeleteI feel blessed to have some very special spiritual friendships. It can be a little scary..but worth it to share your Faith. Sometimes we discover that we have much more in common than we had initially thought. Talking about our Faith and learning from each other, recommending good spiritual reading, encouraging one another and keeping each other accountable in our prayer lives: these are all things that can only help us to grow in our spiritual lives.
Well said, I agree.
DeleteMy mom has a copy of Kelly's book. I should pick it up sometime. . . Thank you, and HAPPY NEW YEAR (a little belated :D)
ReplyDeleteI definitely recommend you do! I've quite enjoyed his writing, and everyone else I know who has read the book also liked it. The 7 pillars of Catholicism CDs are all supposed to be great.
DeleteHi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI have tried twice before to comment but for some reason my comments don't seem to be getting to you. Never mind. I just don’t want you to think I didn’t want to read your post and then stop to say hello. I hope this comment is successful! God bless you!
Hi Sue - not sure why your previous comment attempts were unsuccessful, but I have definitely received the comment now! Thanks for stopping by :)
DeleteI have made promises to myself and others but have never thought of them as Spiritual resolutions. What a good concept. I will have to check out that book.
ReplyDeleteYeah I came up w/ the idea of spiritual resolutions to tie in to the new year "theme," but as I made the decision to focus more on long-term/lifetime goals I thought the idea of resolutions really fit with my new aim.
DeleteI like this idea of making New Year's resolutions for Advent! I used to do something similar, finding things I wanted to change (bad habits to break, good habits to adopt), and using Advent as the time for them.
ReplyDeleteAdvent seems like a great time for making needed changes :)
DeleteThose are just great! I need to work on living more intentionally spiritually.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed Julie. I am definitely a fan of intentionality :)
DeleteHi, Lauren.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog.
Blessings :-)
How we need to remind the world it is Merry Christmas not Happy Holidays. Thanks for the post!
ReplyDelete