This weekend we mark the end of Church’s year, the Feast of Christ the King. Often, at the end of the calendar year we often reflect back on our life over the past year, its events and activities, the things we started the year wanting to achieve (remember all those New Year’s Resolutions!) and how well me met the goals we set for ourselves. The formula we use usually has three key components ….. become more fit ( diet, exercise), spend more time with Family, and be successful in our endeavours
At the end of the Church’s year, it is an ideal time to reflect on our spiritual life over the past year, and to look to our spiritual goals, our spiritual resolutions, for the year to come. The same three components can apply here – to be spiritually fit, to spend more time with God, and to be successful in our spiritual endeavours.
So how do we become more spiritually fit ? Diet is eating the right kind of foods, and exercise is activities that strengthen our body. So a spiritual diet is all about taking in the right kind of spiritual nourishment.
- For example – what kinds of books do you read or movies do you stream on Netflix? I suspect that much of what we take in is similar to ‘junk food’ – a nice way to pass an hour or two, but has little or no lasting impact on us.
- How about reading the most important book in the world – the Bible? Or the Documents of Vatican II or contemporary letters from the Vatican? Or books by the great spiritual directors in our faith’s history?
- Or watching a show about the Saints, or Popes, or Scripture, or Jesus? Or talks by people like Matthew Kelly, or Bishop Barron?
- How about not taking one more class through Parks and Recreation on macramé or learning Windows 10, and attend a Scripture Study class instead?
The Second element – spending more time with God – is all about taking time to talk to and (more importantly) listen to God. How can we do this?
- Perhaps by more regular attendance at Mass, or regular daily prayer, Lectio Divina,
- by seeing the wonder of God in creation,
- or by chatting with God throughout your day and asking his help as your day unfolds
The Third Element can appear to be a bit more difficult, but in reality it is quite straightforward. To be successful in our spiritual endeavours is to refocus our Minds to see Jesus in all whom we meet, and especially in those whom we do not expect to find him in.
- In the damaged and hurting,
- In those hungering for affection but unable to reach out to others.
- In those thirsting for inner peace, but unable to find it.
- In those who are different and don’t share our values or our history and who seem foreign to us.
- In those whose weakness and brokenness is not hidden from others and leaves them naked and vulnerable.
- In those who struggle with illness of the spirit and see themselves as worthless.
- In those imprisoned by fears, anxiety, guilt, depression, in a self-imposed solitary confinement and dying of loneliness.
Next Sunday begins a New Year for the Church. It seems to me that in the few days we have left of this Church Year, we would do well to reflect on some Spiritual Resolutions –
- how spiritually fit we are,
- how much time we have spent with God,
- and how spiritually successful we were in 2018,
and make some Spiritual New Year’s Resolutions that become real in our Minds, our Hearts and our Hands, starting this Advent.