As we come into a new year, many of us are contemplating how we’ll live in this new year. Many of us have made — or are still making — new year’s resolutions. As we all contemplate what our resolutions will be, let’s remember to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in making our resolutions, and then to help us keep them. Make your new resolutions a point of prayer.
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Whenever people ask me how they can prepare themselves spiritually for Christmas, I invite them to read the lyrics of Christmas carols as prayers. Specifying which carols to employ is important; I am not aware of any mystical symbolism behind “Frosty the Snowman,” and I have long been convinced that “All I Want for Christmas is You” is fundamentally unredeemable on the first listen, let alone the ninetieth on the Christmas radio station’s saccharine and secular playlist. But many of the traditional Christian carols were first sung in a liturgical setting, and therefore were designed to be vocal prayers. That is certainly the case with “O Come O Come Emmanuel.”
One of the privileged places of encountering Jesus is in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Confession. In order to approach him in Confession, we have to turn and face the very things in our hearts that are most unworthy of him, that we would prefer to hide from him, and hide from ourselves, the sins and patterns of sinfulness that weigh on us, and burden our consciences, make it feel as if the Lord is far from us, disappointed in us, even given up on us.
As God lives in our hearts, we need to keep them clean so that we can hear his voice. A clean heart avoids places that pollute the mind; a clean heart speaks words that build, not destroy; a clean heart catches the tongue before it gets loose into profanity; a clean heart listens to others and is empathetic to others’ needs; a clean heart doesn’t wish evil for anyone.
You may know the Church in America is promoting a National Eucharistic Revival. After a few years of grassroots initiatives, it culminates with a major event in July 2024. Check out eucharisticrevival.org for details. Why have a revival? As the authors of the website write, “Our world is hurting. We all need healing, yet many of us are separated from the very source of our strength. Jesus Christ invites us to return to the source and summit of our faith: his Real Presence in the Eucharist.”
I once read a story of a little girl who kept praying and asking God to give her a bicycle, but she never got one. Her friends began to tease and laugh at her that God didn’t answer her prayers. But the girl responded to them and said, “He did. God said ‘No.’”
A popular praise-&-worship song takes its title from the opening words of Psalm 89: “I could sing of your love forever.” The song stirs emotions to a blissful pitch of gushing adoration for the loving and healing God who allows us to lift our hands daily in tranquil praise of His never-failing mercy.
I’m blessed to know medical doctors, professors and students who want to integrate Catholic faith into medicine. Such a desire makes sense, given how Catholicism assisted in many ways at the birth of modern medicine.
Today I heard about a theory of human personality which teaches that at the time of birth a child is given a false identity. This new person has a name that it did not choose. It has a family with which it is constantly compared as to relationship of age or of comparison of talent or wit. It lives in a world that it did not create.
We have all experienced moments of varying emotions — some sad, some happy. Humans have different ways of handling or showing emotions, and being emotional is not always a negative thing. In fact, I feel that emotions bring out our humanity, and we must not be shy or afraid to show emotion even as we try to control outbursts of excessive and negative emotions.