At the beginning of Advent, I challenged everyone to ask yourself if you were better off spiritually than you were a year ago… and more importantly – I challenged you to start a new habit NOW so that you WOULD be better off a year from now. Most of us ‘probably’ didn’t really start a new habit, so I bought a thousand of these MASS JOURNALS (From Matthew Kelly) to pass out to everyone old enough to write. This is a habit I’d like us ALL to start TODAY.
Imagine if every time you came to Mass, you went home inspired… Imagine if week after week you brought this journal with you. When you arrive in your pew, you kneel down for a minute and pray this simple prayer on the back: “God, show me ONE way in this Mass that I can be a better person this week”. That’s it…simple. Then – pay attention: to the music, the prayers, the readings, the homily…and when it hits you, write it down.
If you do that every week for a year, you will have yourself a powerful spiritual journal. YOUR life will be changed.
On the way home from church, talk with your family – what was YOUR one thing? You will be amazed at the things people will pick-up on.
Imagine what would happen if EVERYone in our Parish did this – everybody coming to church with their journal and praying to God – God show me one way in this Mass I can be a better person this week. It would be a revolution!!! Every one of us would be more engaged – every one of us trying to grow in our faith. Imagine the conversations that would take place after Mass – everybody sharing their one thing – Imagine the conversations with our family, friends, co-workers. Our PARISH would be changed.
Take it one step further – what if every Catholic in the United States came to church looking for their one thing? This culture would be changed. You and I can’t change the country, but we can change one person – our self.
Start today – pray the prayer – write down your one thing, then on the way home….ask someone what THEIR one thing was and how they’re going to be a better person this week – then share yours. In fact – go on-line to our parish website and post your one-thing! I’m serious! Then you can scan through what other people said their one thing was… it should be inspiring to see how many different things we all hear. I really want our college folks to do this. It will help keep us connected with them – AND – since they go to different parishes, they’re likely hearing a DIFFERENT one-thing.
Yes, this might be a bit awkward at first – but just by asking the question, we start to change our culture to make it NORMAL to talk about what God wants from us.
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