Reflection by Fr. Vincent Nguyen

At the beginning of a new year, we often make a list of things we want to achieve in the coming year. As 2019 is about to begin, many of us have already planned our New Year’s resolution out. The most common resolution is to stay fit and healthy. Some want to learn a new language or an instrument. Others like to travel to different parts of the world. Still, others want to do more charitable works. Those are the top ideas that we can find for our New Year’s resolutions.

What are your resolutions for your spiritual life? What will you do in this coming year to deepen your relationship with the Lord? I would like to suggest some resolutions regarding the spiritual life:

• Make Sunday Mass the priority of the whole week. Go to Mass several minutes early to prepare your soul to receive Christ in His Words and His Sacrament and spend some time after Mass to thank Him. When traveling, you can check the Mass times of the local church.
• Go to daily Mass. There is no better way to start a new day than attending the Holy Mass.
• Go to confession more often. We want to keep our house neat and tidy. Likewise, our soul, the temple of the Holy Trinity, needs to be kept pure. Do not think of the confessional as a place of punishment. It is the place where God’s love and mercy triumph over sins.
• Pray with the Scripture. Read the Scripture readings of the daily Mass. Let the seed of the Word grow and bear fruit in your soul.
• Pray with the family each day. Children often imitate their parents. They will learn to pray from their parents’ prayer life. “A family that prays together stays together.”
• The Holy Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. If you cannot say the whole Rosary, pray a decade each day. While driving, you can play a CD of the Holy Rosary and pray along. Let the Mother of God pray with us and for us.
• Spiritual reading. Find a good spiritual book such as The Story of A Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux or The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton.  Let us learn from the wisdom of the saints.