Beginning the new year with spiritual resolutions

Christmas is over, the eggnog is in short supply and so naturally thoughts turn to the new year and those time-honored albeit unrealistic resolutions, such as running a marathon by next weekend or losing 20 pounds before Epiphany.

Inevitably, those resolutions quickly lose steam and fade into the boot hill of previous failed resolutions.

But what about spiritual resolutions for the new year, where one is focused on the soul rather than the body?

“Spiritual resolutions are very practical and very healthy,” said Father Matthew Graham, pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in Denham Springs. “Hopefully your spiritual life impacts your physical life and attitude and direction where you are always orientated. If you are always just orientated toward worldly things, then that neglects the totality of who we are.

“We have to address body and soul as Christians.”

Dina Dow, director of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, said there are several occasions during the year when attention is drawn to the interior life. She said that is often seen during Lent but also when the new year comes around and the opportunity presents itself for self-assessment of the previous year.  “The Lord is expecting us to grow in holiness through our lives of virtue,” Dow said.

Father Graham said it is important to establish smart goals, with smart meaning specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.

He uses the acronym ATRIP in his own spiritual life, taught to him by his spiritual adviser in the seminary.

He said A stands for adoration, reminding one of being in the presence of God; T is for asking oneself what to be thankful for; R, perhaps the most difficult, is regrets, looking at ways one might have failed God during the day; I represents intercession; and P is the plan from that point.

“It causes us to reflect, to have a conversation with God and then causes us to ask, ‘How do I make my spiritual life more concrete?’ ” he said.
An effective starting point is praying a decade of the rosary a day, while focusing on the mysteries, Father Graham said. He said by praying one decade a day, in a month a person will have prayed all four mysteries of the rosary.

He also recommended reading the daily Gospel readings. Or simply picking up a Bible and start reading the Gospels.

Father Graham suggested starting not with a holy hour but with a manageable holy five minutes.

“Set the phone (for the time), put it down and don’t look at it,” he said. “When the time is up, you will realize you want to do it more. And then you build up to 10 minutes.

“The goal is to do it from now until Lent and at Lent you will say, ‘I want to go deeper; I need to add more of what I can focus on,’ ” he said.  “At Lent re-evaluate and do something different or go deeper. That way it gives us a specific goal.”

Dow said one resolution is to simply ask, “What can I do during my days and nights that would draw me closer to God?”

Suggestions included having a calendar that has a Scripture reading for each day sitting on one’s desk, or reading books of daily reflections.
“It will make you stop and pause for a minute and during that time you are building that relationship with God through communication,” she said. 
Dow also emphasized receiving the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, by attending weekly Mass.

“The more we take the time to be with the Lord the more time we will want to spend with the Lord,” she said. “It’s definitely a sacrifice because it’s a part of time we have to commit to. The commitment is simply because we love the Lord and the Lord loves us. Why would we miss opportunities to have that communication?

“The goal is to have the Lordpresent in our hearts and on our lips at all times.”

Dow also suggested the novel idea of picking one or two saints each year to learn about and ask that saint or saints for their intercession through daily prayer.

Father Graham recommended setting aside a place in one’s home focused on prayer, whether it is turning an area of a closet that is not needed into an altar area or having a corner of a room with a crucifix or the image of a saint. He said this is valuable in several ways, including during the struggles that inevitably arise in one’s prayer life.

“If we are struggling, what am I going to look at?” he said. “Am I going to look at the TV, am I going to look at the phone? That’s not going to help.
“If I have something that’s religious and holy and set apart, I know that will give me a place to focus.”

Father Graham said one of his go-to prayers in times of his own discouragement is Hail Holy Queen.

He also suggested journaling and finding a prayer partner so each person can be held accountable for adhering to their spiritual resolutions.
“We have to continue working at it,” he said. “Always know with the Lord you can begin again. That is the beauty of the prayer life.”

Dow has her own personal reminder to keep her focused – the initials JMJ (Jesus, Mary and Joseph). She will often sign a restaurant bill with those initials and add a cross.

“It guides us in the virtues and can keep us on a simple path to holiness by simply saying ‘JMJ,’ ” she said. “How do you spread the good news in the everyday things that you do? How do you help people to know Jesus every day?”

She said the fruitfulness one experiences in his or her own life by setting and following spiritual resolutions are far greater than they could have imagined.

“Every day with the Lord is every day with the divine, which is anticipating our lives in eternity,” Dow said “So we start now.”