Resolutions...

People make resolutions to change their lives, typically on the New Year, but why not on other anniversaries? Resolutions on issues regarding your marriage on your wedding anniversary? Resolutions on changing your life on your birthday? Resolutions on your relations with children (or parents) on their birthdays? Resolutions on improving your spiritual life on the anniversary of your Baptism (if known)?

Many spiritual directors may say that every time you spend time in meditation you should walk away with a resolution (even if it be small and simple and limited to that day).

From Furrow No. 167:

Make up the time you have lost resting on the laurels of your self-complacency, and thinking what a good person you are, as if it were enough to keep going, without stealing or killing.

Speed up the pace of your piety and your work: you still have such a long way to go: Live happily with everyone even those who annoy you, and make an effort to love-to serve!-those whom you despised before.

Isn't this so true? We take a step forward (or so we think) in our piety. In self-congratualtion we decide we need to rest a bit, because all that hard work (that in reality God did) makes us deserve a little rest. But as St. Augustine said, if you are not going forward, you are sliding backward.