Anno Domini 2014 - Happy New Year!

 

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.

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!



Happy New Year

Way back in 2009, in my "first" blog if you please, I started what I hoped would become a tradition of spiritual New Year posts at the beginning of each Advent.  It seems I forgot all about it last year, but here I am in 2011, ready to start my New Year in the Church on a positive foot and with some spiritual resolutions if you will for the upcoming year.   Unfortunately, the goals I set back in 2009 were not met in the coming year, in fact, I believe that they still have yet to be completed, but you are still welcome to read that original post if you want to see what I was thinking about during my Advent in South Dakota.

My spiritual goals for this coming Liturgical Year are pretty simple.  And while I hadn't gotten around to making this Advent post quite yet, I have been making an effort to start achieving these goals.  So, my spiritual resolutions for 2012 are:

1.) Make time for prayer.

2.) Appreciate blessings.
3.) Make God my priority.
4.) Read the Bible.
5.) Share Christ with others. 

What are your hopes this Advent and this year?  What are you doing to help re-welcome the Saviour into our world, and into your heart?