Moving into the new year, we may assess our spiritual and physical lives and look for ways to improve and grow. January often feels like a good time to start or restart some holy and healthy habits that were overlooked in the busyness of the Advent and Christmas seasons.
We might consider exercise, sleep, healthy eating, hydrating and maybe even scheduling some appointments with medical professionals to stay on top of our health issues. We can look at our prayer and sacramental lives and consider incorporating new devotionals, spiritual practices and routines that we may feel called in this new season to be holy and healthy.
I like habits to be sustainable though, so not doing something just for a week or two, but moving toward months and years of incorporating a new habit to grow more holy and healthy. This scripture has become a guiding passage for me over the years, from Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” I seek the help of Jesus in starting and sustaining new habits and I simply can’t do it without Him.
Recently, I began listening to the Rosary in a Year by Ascension Press and with host Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR. I’ve been enjoying his 15-minute reflections related to the Rosary daily. I listen while driving in the car or eating my lunch. I pray my rosary separately from the podcast, but his reflections have been helpful in my rosary mediation time.
Reading good spiritual books is something that I had less time for during Advent and Christmas and I’ve been enjoying getting back into that daily habit and keeping it simple by reading at least a few pages a day.
Journaling is another habit that has slipped out of my routine recently and my spiritual director gently encouraged me to begin to journal again — in any way that feels inviting and sustainable — whether in the morning as I reflect on the readings and gospel or in the evening as I do an examination of the day.
I’ve committed to walking outdoors in the winter on a daily basis and this has been a beautiful time of silence to pray and to ponder the things going on in my life and to give thanks for the many blessings.
The saints remind us that this journey with Jesus teaches us to create and sustain habits that will help us to better know, love and serve Jesus and our neighbor. We will rise and fall with the things of life that sometimes get in the way of our daily routines, and so we must be gentle with ourselves on this journey.
St. Francis de Sales said, “Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew.”
The words of St. Francis apply to our spiritual aspirations as well as our physical goals. One thing I love about this life with Jesus is we can start anew daily. We don’t have to wait until a new year, a change of seasons or just the right time. We can wake up today, tomorrow or the next day and do something new and beautiful for God, for others, and for ourselves — inspired by our love of Jesus to be a sign of His love in the world.
Pope St. John Paul II said, “The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it.”
So let our physical and spiritual actions, habits and goals be a sign that Jesus is alive within us. Let us lean on Him to help us make our holy and healthy habits sustainable as we seek to glorify Him in all that we do in this new year.