Every year we do a little Catholic nerd thing and our family has a New Year's Eve party on the night before the first Sunday of Advent. In the liturgical year, we are actually at the very end of the year and the new year begins this coming Sunday. For us Catholics, that is a bigger deal than December 31 on the secular calendar. Not that we won't celebrate then, too, because hey, why not? (Also, #stillchristmas.)
So at our house we have a party that Saturday night. And by party I mean we have dips and dessert and maybe watch a movie and the kids drink sparkling cider. (Except for that one who actually prefers to sip from my wine glass. I like that kid.) It's not anything extravagant but it's fun and gives a little nod of our familial head to time redeemed and the deference we have first to the movements and seasons of the Church.
This year I wanted to expand upon the idea a bit and we're going to incorporate some Catholic New Year's Resolutions into our celebrating. Of course, these would also be great to do at the regular New Year's, too, if that's your preference. Rather than the standard resolutions that focus more on losing weight, exercising, organizing and all that good stuff, these will be be the bigger soul changes we may feel called to work on.
If we're really rockin' this Saturday, we'll make it to Confession before our party and then take some time to figure out on our own and together some ways we'd like to grow and change this liturgical year.
I made a sheet for us to fill out and I'm hoping that this will become part of our little Catholic New Year's tradition.
The list includes:
One Virtue I Want to Grow in...
One Sin I'd Like to Eliminate….
One Book of Scripture I'd Like to Read Through…
One Other Spiritual Book I'd Like to Read…
One Way to Increase My Sacramental Life
One Saint I'd Like to Get to Know Better...
Any Special Intentions for the Year…
(Obviously, the kids will only be able to do this as much as they are able for their age.)
As a little gift I made it available for anyone who would like to print it out for your own use! It certainly could also be used as a 'normal' New Year's resolution list, of course. Simply click on the image to open it in a new window, then right click to save/upload it to your computer.
#catholicnerd
This is brilliant and lovely and it is so kind and generous of you to share! May God reward you!
ReplyDeleteOkay, it's so eerie that you posted this when you did. The homily on Sunday was actually about "spiritual new year resolutions" and it's been making me think hard. I actually thought about sharing some thoughts in a post about it because it's a relatively new concept to me! Spiritual resolutions make so much more sense to me than regular resolutions, and it makes sense to celebrate the end/beginning of the Church year! So glad you posted this!
ReplyDeleteOh, neat! It's a relatively new concept for me, too, so we'll see how it goes :)
DeleteI love this. :-)
ReplyDelete