Hello my Catholic women friends! Are you feeling compelled to start something new? After all, we just celebrated the New Year! Our resolutions seem to take the same theme year after year. Last year, research by the University of Scranton listed the following as the top ten resolutions in the United States: 1) Lose weight, 2) Get organized, 3) Spend less, save more, 4) Enjoy life to the fullest, 5) Staying fit and healthy, 6) Learn something exciting, 7) Quit smoking, 8) Help others in their dreams, 9) Fall in love, and 10) Spend more time with family.
This year I was refreshed to see that our wonderful Pope Francis’ most memorable quotes were used to inspire Paterno Esmaquel II to write a post on Rappler, “New Year’s Resolutions: The Pope Francis List”!
As I am tired of my own feeble attempts to overcome some of my imperfections, I thought, “What better list to use as my own inspiration?!” Then I started reading…hmm, I should have known. These are not for the faint of heart! But I have been striving to become a better representation of Christ in earnest for the past couple of years and nothing good comes without sacrifice…remember sacrificial love brings joy and blessings we never thought possible.
So, let’s take a look at a few of the resolutions on the Pope’s list. Number one: Don’t gossip (this one is closely related to Number 6, stop judging others.) Wow, just for one day, watch your words. How often do we speak of someone else without realizing that we are indeed gossiping! Avoiding gossip takes the awareness to respond instead of react to what is being said in conversation. This can be hard in many ways, but the most frequent time I find myself in this position is when I am with a group of my friends and the conversation takes a turn toward complaining. I find myself making statements that may not even hold weight in light of the circumstances being discussed for who knows the truth of any situation unless we are directly involved?
Surprisingly, complaining is rampant in parish circles when we become involved for the work of the Lord and find things not going as we may like! This was a huge eye-opener for me about 25 years ago when I really started doing ministry and volunteer work.
The hardest part of this situation? Backing out of it. When you become aware of being involved in gossip, the best thing to do is to change the subject. If you are really confident and feeling like the Spirit is with you, say something like, “You know I’m not really comfortable talking about…” Be a challenging, spiritual leader with these words.
How about Number Three: Make time for others. This is actually quite simple. We don’t have to give hour upon hour on a weekly basis to check off the box. Actually, the most remembered instances of making time for others tend to be unplanned moments of interaction. Those acts of kindness done when you are in a hurry yourself but recognize that someone else’s need may be greater.
Think about the recent season of busyness…Christmas. How many times were you in line or at a checkout counter? Were you able to be patient with the seasonal cashier that was in-training and taking a long time to ring up your purchase? What a gift it would be to let the person know that you were not in a hurry and understood they needed to take their time and to thank them for working so you could shop! I know you can think of hundreds of other ways to check off the box for Number Three…just keep up your antennae for opportunities. Reward yourself by keeping a journal of them and saying an extra prayer for that person as you write about it.
So there are a few from “The Pope Francis List”. Here is the link to the entire list and the Pope’s reason for making them worthwhile resolutions http://www.iccparish.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/01/New-Years-Resolutions-by-Pope-Francis.pdf
May you be greatly blessed in this New Year. And remember Christ loves us even when we don’t perfectly meet our resolutions!
Ellen Marie Dumer
