This past Sunday marks the end for the liturgical year
and the beginning of the new liturgical year. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
Over the past week I have thought a lot about the new
year and New Year’s resolutions. Less than a month from now we will be making
many new years resolutions. I can not tell you the number of times that I have
heard of people making resolutions to lose weight, getting in shape, or getting
better grades. I am skeptical of these actions because very few people are
successful in fulfilling their resolutions. Commonly these resolutions look
introspective and are arrogant. These resolutions are not bad but commonly
these types of resolutions are concerned with look better on the outside but
have very little effect on our character.
Many people look at the season of Lent as another time to
make resolutions. During Lent we give something up or take on some form of
prayer or almsgiving. Most Catholic do not know that the season of Advent has a
long standing tradition of spiritual resolutions. Advent is the time of great
waiting! We wait in great expectation of December 25, Christmas Day. We also
wait in expectation of the second coming. Traditionally cities had watchman to
keep watch over a city during the night and they waited for the first rays of
the sun. Over time waiting and silence became synonyms for the same spiritual
truth of anticipation and preparation.
This year I am trying to make faith based resolutions at
the beginning Advent. It is my prayer that like Lent the actions that I started
during Advent will continue through the year. Over time I have fallen away from
several types of prayer that have been fruitful in the past. Personally I
desire to spend some time with Christ in the Adoration Chapel each day.
Adoration helps me silence my heart and body and listen to Christ. I am
shutting off the radio of in my car either going to or coming back from work and
make that a little time to check in with the Lord (aka Pray). I have done this
in the past and it has made Christmas so much more fulfilling and exiting
because I did not get so caught up in the consumerism of Christmas.
There are many different ways of waiting; you have to find
your own. Be creative! If you want to be successful write it down. Write down
what you are going to do (quiet prayer), where you are doing it (in my bed
room), when you are going to do it (before school), and for how long (30 min a
day). Know yourself; if you get easy distracted in your room don't pray there.
If you struggle to be silent for 5 minutes, do not try to made a holy hour, start
with a holy 10 or 15 minutes. Challenge yourself, but also make it reasonable.
Then stick to it. If you do not do it one day, OK you missed and are human, get
back up and start again. Never give up and this will be one of the most blessed
Christmases and years ever!
Happy
Advent and Happy New Year
