Catholic Resolutions 2008

As the year 2007 AD ends this evening, I would like to reflect on my 2007 Catholic Resolutions. The year 2007 was a year of both great joys and great sorrows including my graduation and a week-trip to St. Augustine, Florida along with events such as the death of my great-grandmother, Lucille. This year, 2007, was also the year that I was officially accepted as a seminarian and began to study at seminary. It was the year that I began to make daily Holy hours and I was able to attend Daily Mass. My prayer life has greatly improved - I pray certain prayers daily - prayers that I keep with me in prayer cards. In 2007 I also bought my first cassock and surplice. Yet, in 2007, many of my family members suffered through various illness, some had to spend time in the hospital. So, reflecting on this past year, it was a year of both great positives and great negatives. But, above all, we must be thankful for the gifts of this past year.

2007 Catholic Resolutions:

1) Finish my application process to enter a seminary, get accepted by my diocese, and start at a college seminary in the fall of 2007.
2) Pray the 15 Prayers of St. Bridget each day or as often as possible
3) Find and purchase a Traditional Catholic Prayer Book and a 1962 Roman Missal
4) Attend my first Tridentine Mass
5) Seek to grow spiritually and avoid all of the sins that I have committed often in the past
6) Read classic spirituality books including "Story of a Soul" by St. Therese of Lisieux
7) Read all of the New Testament

2007 Resolution Results:

1) I was accepted by my diocese and began college seminary in August 2007. Yet, I am still seriously discerning a vocation with a Traditional Order like the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. This 2007 Resolution was a complete success

2) Unfortunately, the Prayers of St. Bridget are very long and I did not succeed in praying the prayers daily. I will try again but I think that sometime in the future would be better than now.

3) I have greatly succeeded at this Resolution. I have three pre-Vatican II brevaries (two in English and one in Latin) as well as an Angelus Press Missal. I also now have a Douay Rheims Bible and the rubrics of the Tridentine Mass. These are just a few of the excellent books that I have found in 2007.

4) In September 2007 I attended my first Tridentine Mass on a Sunday and since then I believe that I have attended four other Tridentine Masses - one on the First Friday of December, one on the Immaculate Conception, and one on Lætare Sunday. I also attended one in November. This is all very exciting since I love the Tridentine Mass and would love, one day as a priest, to exclusively celebrate the Tridentine Mass. I hope to continue attending the Tridentine Mass as often as possible while I am at seminary. This resolution was a success.

5) A person can always work to grow more spiritually and reject more sins. I will keep working more on this resolution this year and continue my progress.

6) I have read a few books including St. Augustine's Confessions. But I did not have a chance to yet read The Story of a Soul.

7) I did not succeed in reading all of the New Testament - I was able to read the Gospels but not the Epistles of St. Paul.

2008 Catholic Resolutions:

1) Read the entire Bible in 1 year
2) Continue to pray the Rosary daily along with Lauds, Vespers, and Compline
3) Continue to frequently attend the Tridentine Mass
4) Purchase my first biretta
5) Purchase many different books and build up my Catholic library. I would specifically like to buy the Liber Usualis, the Liber Hymnarius, a Summa Theologica, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Divine Intimacy by Fr. Gabriel, the Catechism of the Council of Trent, My Catholic Faith by Angelus Press, How Christ Said the First Mass by Meagher, The Holy Mass by Dom Prosper, Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre by Davies, and the Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco, all in Latin if possible
6) Continue to discern a vocation with a Traditional Order and try to save up more money so that, if I am called, I may more easily join one
7) Update "A Catholic Life", specifically include more prayers from the 1962 Missal on each saint's page.
8) Seek to grow spiritually and avoid all of the sins that I have committed often in the past