A New New Year for Self-Improvement
Every 365 days or so, we have a chance to look over our lives and decide what needs fixing. New Year’s Day makes us think of dieting, giving up a bad habit like procrastinating or complaining, or weeding out our clothes closet. We may or may not make resolutions for the new year. And we may or may not break them in a few days . . . or hours! This New Year’s Day is special and different because a full moon will appear, a rarity on this day. We can resolve to make this new year different too by making and keeping resolutions differently. So c’mon. Let’s shoot for the moon. Some ideas:
Make just one. That way we have a better chance of keeping it.
Ask a trusted and honest friend to suggest a resolution for you.
Write the resolution and place it where you will remember it.
Associate a daily activity with your resolution as a reminder, for example brushing your teeth.
Choose a day each month to review how well you are attaining your goal, maybe the first of each month . . . or the day of a full moon.
No doubt even atheists make New Year’s resolutions. However, they are a very Christian practice. Someone defined a Christian as a person who always has the chance to make a 180° turnaround. Jesus calls everyone with flaws, minor or major, to a metanoia, a change of heart. Changing isn’t easy. We Catholics have the Sacrament of Penance to prompt us to resolve to improve time and again. And it offers the grace, superhuman power, to change.
Breaking new year’s resolutions is depressing and discouraging. Keeping them boosts our self-esteem and puts us over the moon!
“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.” —G.K. Chesterton
Any other suggestions for making and keeping resolutions?
Genealogy of Jesus, Our Spiritual Journey
This morning’s Gospel was the long genealogy of Jesus from Matthew. I wondered what the priest at St. Paschal Baylon Church would find to say about this rather boring passage. Father Paul surprised us by presenting a unique idea. He suggested drawing up the genealogy of our spiritual life. This would make an excellent prayer activity or journal entry. It involves looking back over our entire lives and pinpointing those people who nurtured our faith. Who baptized us? Who were our godparents? Who took us to Mass, or made us go? Who taught us our prayers? Who instructed us in the faith? Who heard our confessions or gave us spiritual direction? Who influenced us by their good example? Who inspired us? Who bolstered us up when our faith was faltering? (more…)
Reconciliation and Peace
This week the world was focused on Nelson Mandela, the South African hero hailed as a master of reconciliation. He is a Christ figure, someone who is an image of Jesus Christ who is the Greatest Reconciler. During this Advent season we are preparing to celebrate the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem that initiated his reconciling the human race with its Creator. As Christians, we are called to be reconcilers too, peacemakers in our own sphere of influence. The word reconcile comes from the Latin for “to make friends again.” We might be a mediator between two people or groups who are at odds. We ourselves might be involved in a conflict situation that needs healing so that we are friends again. (more…)
Nuggets in the Bible: Insights from Lectio Divina
After reading and hearing the Bible stories umpteen times, when we encounter them yet again, we might be tempted to tune out. This is foolhardy. Why? Because God speaks to us ever anew in his Word. I’ve discovered that sometimes I’ve overlooked—or been deaf to—a certain element in a biblical passage. Sometimes a homily or a lecture provides new insight. I’m not alone in this. At a staff meeting this week as we prayed over Scripture, one member said she had never noticed John the Baptist saying, “Even now the ax lies at the foot of the tree [which doesn’t bear good fruit].”
Pope Benedict XVI said that if people practiced lectio divina, holy reading, there would be a spiritual springtime in the Church. Lectio divina is a four-step method of prayer: reading, meditating, responding, and then wordless contemplation of God. Little details in Scripture that come to our attention can be a springboard to lectio divina. Here are four examples and a few reflections that they suggested to me:
1. In the Book of Genesis, after Noah enters the ark with the parade of animals, God shuts the door behind them. (Genesis 7:17) Granted that is not an earthshaking detail. Yet, it highlights God’s loving care and makes him more real. What little courtesies of God have I experienced?
2. In the Book of Exodus, it was an angel Moses saw in the burning bush. But then it is God who speaks to him. Why this change? What light does it shed on the relationship of angels to God? What do angels mean to me?
3. In the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph receives messages from an angel in a dream not just once, but four times. If God spoke through dreams back then, he might speak to me today through dreams. When has a dream changed my life? What “dream” do I have that might have its origin in God?
4. On the Feast of Christ the King (my feast day) Father Weber mentioned that the good thief was the only one in the Gospels to address Jesus by his personal name. How often do I call on Jesus by name? How intimate is my relationship with him? What name does Jesus call me?
What “new” detail in Scripture have you noticed or had pointed out? What did it mean for you?
Advent with Mary, Best Disciple
Mary is one of the three persons we focus on during Advent. (The other two are John the Baptist and the prophet Isaiah.) As we wait with Mary during the coming weeks before Christmas, we might ponder how she, the first and best disciple, is a model for us. For example, Mary gives us five lessons on discipleship in one incident: the wedding at Cana. I heard these lessons in a priest’s talk when I was in Dubai and thought they were worth passing on. (more…)
