Sunday, January 04, 2015

Pope Francis' Advice for New Year's Resolutions

Pope Francis has the following suggestions for our New Year's Resolutions in 2015--they're good challenges for all of us! 
  1. Take care of your spiritual life, your relationship with God, because this is the backbone of everything we do and everything we are.
  2. Take care of your family life, giving your children and loved ones not just money, but most of all your time, attention and love.
  3. Take care of your relationships with others, transforming your faith into life and your words into good works, especially on behalf of the needy.
  4. Be careful how you speak, purify your tongue of offensive words, vulgarity and worldly decadence.
  5. Heal wounds of the heart with the oil of forgiveness, forgiving those who have hurt us and medicating the wounds we have caused others.
  6. Look after your work, doing it with enthusiasm, humility, competence, passion and with a spirit that knows how to thank the Lord.
  7. Be careful of envy, lust, hatred and negative feelings that devour our interior peace and transform us into destroyed and destructive people.
  8. Watch out for anger that can lead to vengeance; for laziness that leads to existential euthanasia; for pointing the finger at others, which leads to pride; and for complaining continually, which leads to desperation.
  9. Take care of brothers and sisters who are weaker … the elderly, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and strangers, because we will be judged on this.
May God gives us the grace, courage and persistence to do these things!

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