New Year's Resolutions

I'm not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions....mainly because I'm too lazy to think of one and then to try and keep it.

But there's always something about the week in between Christmas and New Year's that gets me thinking. And this year has been no different. This year actually has been quite full of thinking and praying and planning.

Almost everywhere you turn in the blogsphere are people posting about what they're going to do in the New Year. And a big theme I keep running into is how to bring more peace and joy into our lives. And quite a few people have said that it's about simplicity and bringing a rhythm to our daily lives.

And this has brought me much food for thought and prayer. I have to be careful or else this post will take on novel proportions though!

But I am feeling a great pull in my heart for the need of simplicity in my life. Simplicity in order to be more in union with God, with myself and with others. To have a daily rhythm in my life in order for His peace to pervade every apsect of my life, in order to Joy at all times even in the sufferings.

How to go about this though? I didn't know.

So after hemming and hawing and getting a tad frustrated because I couldn't come up with anything I did what I should have done at the beginning.....took it all to prayer!

And got a few answers. The rest are still to be determined but it's a start.

I then picked up the book The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life by Paula Huston. It's pretty good. Lots of advice and stories of various saints and how they tried to have simplicity. But this isn't a book review post so I'll hold off on that for a future post.

But right in the first few chapters I found that to have a simple life doesn't just mean getting rid of all the "stuff" that is around us...the books, clothes, etc. Yes having less material stuff can help because when our areas are cluttered it seems as if our minds are (at least for me anyways).

But before worrying about all the material stuff we need to work on the interior stuff. And boy oh boy ever since I've realized that have I been working hard! It's our ATTITUDES that need to change first. And THAT'S my New Year's Resolution this year.

I sometimes tend towards a pessimistic attitude. I sometimes tend towards negitive attitudes. Maybe not in my outward appearence but INSIDE my head....you wouldn't want to be there a lot of times! I want to work on being more quiet, letting other people talk without me thinking of waht I want to say next. Of keeping my thoughts more positive especially towards other people. Of being a more contemplative, prayerful person.

All of those thoughts (and more) took place during prayer in Adoration. Then I walked outside and began to lose some of my "omph" to work on it. But as I continued to read "The Holy Way" I realized that the author uses a different saint in each chapter as a "guide" for the various subjects. And those saints are all desert Fathers. From about the same time period.

And another light-bulb went off in my head! I have one of those guides! I just got it in fact last week! And at first I was none too pleased to have him! About two weeks ago I asked to be paired up with a patron saint for 2008. While I waited to find out which saint would choose me I had all kinds of visions of who it might be: St. Therese? Our Blessed Mother? St. John of the Cross? All kinds of possibilities.

And then I found out Saint John of Egypt "picked" me.

Huh?

Whose he?

I had no idea. And I wasn't too pleased with him either. I did a quick Google search and came up with hardly anything. Just that he was an Egyptian Desert Father well respected by the people of his time as well as Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, and Saint John Cassian; that he lived a life of poverty, great prayer, perseverance and humility; and that he told of future events and could read into people's hearts.

So what? What the heck would a 4th century hermit have to do with my life here in the 21st century? And there's not much out there about him that I could find. And probably no book to read about his life either.

Ummm. Wake up call about two days after that. I had to be reminded that there are no coincidences with God. I want to learn to be more contemplative, more peaceful, more prayerful. I want to bring about a change in some of my internal attitudes. I want a simplier rhythm to my days woven in prayer.

What better patron to have to lead me upon this in 2008 then a 4th century hermit who lived a solitary life in silence and prayer? Coincidence? I think not.

No books to read to learn about this man? Who needs them (gasp! did I just say that??). Find out about him in prayer. Listen to him through the silence of time spent in Adoration. Don't use tons of words just BE in the Presence of God and find out about St. John of Egypt in prayer.

I pray that 2008 will be a quieter year with less internal clutter and noise. That I be able to find a deeper relationship with God and our Blessed Mother. That through quiet and peace I will be able to do the tasks They have laid out for me for the upcoming year. And I pray I don't get discouraged but that I persevere in hope and trust and faith. And that when I do fall that St. John of Egypt be there at my side as my guide, to lift me up and give me an encouraging word.

Yes I do believe I was given just the right patron for 2008!