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Each year, I have made what I call "Catholic Resolutions." These New Year's Resolutions are not centered on losing weight, eating more vegetables, or securing a raise. I make resolutions for all facets of my life, including these. Rather, these resolutions each year are centered around my spiritual life. I encourage all of you to make resolutions specifically geared toward improving your own Faith life and your own knowledge of the Faith. One's spiritual health needs the same care - if not more - than our physical, financial, or professional health.
Ask yourself:
- Do I know the Faith that I profess to believe in? If not, how can I learn more? For example, CatechismClass.com has an ideal Adult Course just for this purpose.
- Am I truly living a Catholic life? Am I learning more prayers? Am I helping others to learn the Faith and live it out? Do I regularly receive the Sacraments?
- Do you struggle with certain sins or addictions? What actions do I need to take to really conquer them?
- Do you need to make more donations to Catholic organizations or pro-life charities?
- What is my dominant fault, and how can I tackle it and grow in virtues?
- What additional days of penance can you observe as days of fasting and abstinence? Can you observe the vigils of the apostles as fast days? What about all 40 days of Lent or the 40 days leading up to Christmas? Will you keep all days of Lent including Sundays as day of abstinence? There are many venerable ways we can practice penance this year and fulfill our Lady's call for "Penance, penance, penance." See the 2024 Catholic Fasting Calendar for ideas.
This is the time of year to truly set Catholic Resolutions, which will have eternal repercussions. Now is the time to actually make true and lasting Catholic Resolutions for the new year.
Some General Suggestions of Catholic Resolutions:
Some General Suggestions of Catholic Resolutions:
- Pray the Rosary every day, if you are out of the habit of it
- Pray Lauds, Vespers, and Compline (from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Divine Office) every day.
- Say a prayer for the Poor Souls in Purgatory every day, such as the St Gertrude Prayer. Getting a copy of The Purgatorian Manual: Containing Spiritual Reading and Prayers for Every Day of the Month is also an excellent idea.
- Attend Mass one day extra a week in addition to Sunday. And if you have fallen away from Mass, start going weekly again.
- Make it a habit to go to Confession every 2 weeks. Ensure that you are sincere and actually detest your sins and desire to amend your life.
- Fulfill the First Friday Devotion as well as the First Saturday Devotion.
- Start wearing the Brown Scapular if you do not already. But ensure you are properly enrolled by a priest.
- Determine what is your predominant fault and make a plan to fight it and conquer it this next year.
- Make time for a morning meditation and mental prayer each and every day before work.
- Identify one virtue to acquire and one vice to conquer this year. Make an action plan for how you will actually make progress on a daily and weekly basis to do so.
- Make it a point to learn much more about the Faith. For example, CatechismClass.com has an ideal Adult Course just for this purpose.
- Add additional days of penance in the form of fasting and abstinence and adopt the traditional suggestions in the 2024 Catholic Fasting Calendar.
2 comment(s):
Hello. I found this post helpful and was somewhat comforted that I found myself being able to say that I already practice many of these items regularly. I had dropped regular recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours and have made an effort to resume that practice more regularly by way of the the Christian Prayer book version.
Please check out the traditional Divine Office and not the Novus Ordo one in the Christian Prayer book
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