By Amanda Thompson, Director of Catholic Campus Ministry
Happy New Year and New Quarter!
January is the time of resolutions, a time to reset, change, and begin again. There are many resolutions that we make as we begin a new year. They can be physical, emotional, or spiritual. I would suggest that if you get your spiritual house in order, all other things in your life will also fall into place. Remembering that we are not alone and that God is always a part of all we do is a way to re-center and re-focus.
There are many ways to get our spiritual home together. My favorite one is prayer. When I begin the day with prayer, everything seems to be more manageable. I know that I am being held, guided, and cared for by a loving God who sees way beyond my myopic vision of the world and my life.
I have tried many different ways of praying through the years and have found that there is no right way to pray. Sometimes it depends upon what I am doing that morning. Here are some things that I have found helpful:
- Pray as you go app– A reflection on the daily readings by the Irish Jesuits
- Give Us this Day- A daily devotional
- The Word Among Us- A daily devotional
- 3 minute Retreat app– Daily prayer with the Jesuits
- The Bible– picking a book of the Bible and slowly reading through it
- Praying the rosary
- Journaling
- A spiritual book
- Just being quiet with God
- Listening to Christian music on your commute
- Daily Mass
- Running, walking, or exercising with no headphones
When you begin to practice prayer every day, you begin to see everything through the eyes of God. Then all your anxieties and worries change because you know that you are not alone in dealing with them and that God has equipped you to deal with them. As Paul says to the Philippians:
“Always be joyful, then, in the Lord; I repeat, be joyful. Let your good sense be obvious to everybody. The Lord is near. Never worry about anything; but tell God all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition shot through with gratitude, and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4: 1-9).
Embark on a New Year’s Resolution this year that can change everything in your life: Prayer.
