New Year's Resolutions 2016

By the time this is published we will already be a week or two into the New Year. I hope everyone had a safe and sane New Year’s Eve, which Dick Clark failed to take with him on his departure. The end of one year or decade or millennium is always a time for reflection on what has passed and hopes for the future. The new year is a time for making resolutions…commitments of one type or another.

Some folks make resolutions to quit smoking, lose weight, start exercise programs or any number of other goals that are mostly worthwhile. Most of these, unfortunately, don’t survive the month of January. In beginning my 64^th year on this Earth I’ve pretty well given up on most of those…I don’t smoke, I eat properly (if occasionally too much) and exercise as best I can, given my ailments with which age has gifted me. But there are some resolutions I want to make that will have both temporal and eternal consequences.

Resolution #1

I want to become more faithful in taking advantage of all the opportunities that our Faith provides us to gain spiritual nutrition. These include the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and listening to the English language Mass online via CatholicTV.Com. We regularly attended Mass at Saint Joseph Catholic Church here in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, Philippines but the Liturgy is in Bisaya (the local dialect) and I am not as well versed in it yet. Although I know most of the responses, what they mean and when to use them I don’t know enough to be blessed by the Homily and some of the side things that go on during the Mass. Listening to the Mass in English and sharing Spiritual Communion with them is a blessing.

In the past I have used the Rosary during Lent as an additional spiritual commitment (not a Penance) and gained much strength from that commitment. Catholic TV.Com also has a good resource for the Divine Mercy Chaplet done in song. I think both of these would be a good weekly or even daily way to grow closer to Mama Mary and the Lord.

Resolution #2

Along the same lines I want to commit myself to mastering the Bisaya language more fully. This is not an easy task since there really isn’t a course or anything available like there is for Tagalog (the main Filipino language that TV, News, etc. are in). One thing I have done to help me is to learn to pray the Hail Mary in Bisaya, but I want to get to the place where I can pray the whole Rosary in Bisaya. I am a member of Saint Joseph Church and I want to get more of my spiritual nourishment there. So a more serious commitment to the language is needed.

Resolution #3

Key verses: Jude 1:3, 2 Timothy 2:23-26, 1 Peter 3:15

Saint Jude tells us that we must “contend earnestly for the Faith”, but in so doing Saints Peter and Paul teach that we must avoid silly arguments and answer those who sincerely seek knowledge with “gentleness and respect”. I have always been a debater and it’s very easy for me to get involved on this site in what appear on the surface to be long discussions but in reality are arguments. Generally, the people on the other side of these arguments are not at all interested in learning about the Catholic faith but rather are here to try to undermine the faith of the readers and to win them to the confusion of Sola Scriptura and Protestantism. They fit the very definition of what Saint Paul calls “foolish and unlearned questions” in the 2 Timothy verses.

So, along those lines I want in this new year to continue to contend for the faith, but to avoid contentiousness and contentious people.

Resolution #4

Keeping with Resolution #3 I want to become more of a student of the Church. I want to familiarize myself more with the writing of the Church and the great men and women that God has given us through it. I want to be as well versed in this as I am with the Scriptures. This last month, in preparing for the articles on “Discord Among the Brethren”, I read some of the documents produced by Vatican Council II that produced the Mass as we know it today. In order to more fully be able to represent to Church in what I write here, I want to know more about what those who have gone before me had to say about it. We’ve also been blessed in our lifetime with at least two men (Pope Saint John XXIII and Pope Saint John Paul II) who have been elevated to Sainthood and who wrote fairly extensively. We also have available the writings of one who I believe will not only one day be a Saint but also receive the title “Doctor of the Church”: Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

Resolution #5

Last, but not least, I want to start to truly relax and enjoy my retirement. I’ve been a working man my whole life and the first half of this last year has been a little rough in transitioning to “doing nothing” as a full time occupation. I’ve stressed too much, worried too much and enjoyed too little. That began to change in the second half of the year and I want this next year to continue this trend.

I pray that you all will be blessed in this coming year with health, happiness and especially that you may “be blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” to quote Saint Paul. More than that, I pray that what you read in the articles I write this year will be an encouragement and edification to your life as Catholics. May God bless and keep you all.