In addition to those suggested in our slideshow, following is a list of resources that I recommended on Women of Grace Live, Ash Wednesday, March 5. Each of these is structured in such a way that it is perfect for a daily devotional during this Holy Season of Lent. They also are great resources for increasing our life of faith and strengthening our interior life. My prayer is that you find them so useful, you continue to use them once this Holy Season is over. Most of them are available through EWTN Religious Cataglogue or on our website.
Through the course of this week, we have discovered that New Year resolutions, rooted in Christ and prayerfully chosen, can lead us along the path to holiness. Today we come to the last two resolutions for the New Year using the acronym, R-E-S-O-L-V-E-D.
Already the acronym “R-E-S-O-L-V-E-D” has given us much to ponder regarding New Year Resolutions and the spiritual life. We have discovered that a recommitment to Jesus Christ coupled with a daily examination of conscience, fortified by surrender and obedience ,does much to lead us on the path to holiness.
Today, we will find out that the L and the V in the acronym lead us a few steps closer to our goal.
The word “Resolved” has provided us with an opportunity to fashion our new year’s resolutions around an acronym that helps us make progress on the path of holiness.
Yesterday, we looked at the importance of Recommitment to Jesus Christ and two types of Examinations of Conscience. Each of these enable us to take a confident step forward on our spiritual journey. Today we will see, however, that without the wisdom provided by the S and the O, we will never reach the depths of union to which God beckons us.
Traditionally, the beginning of the New Year is a time for resolutions.
However, fewer and fewer people are engaging in this age-old custom. Perhaps most feel the effort is useless. How many resolutions have we made throughout our lives only to find we break them within the first few weeks of their institution? Indeed, Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said that “Resolutions, like the good, die young.”
Every time we profess the Nicene Creed, we affirm our belief that Jesus Christ is inseparably true God and true man. "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."
One of my favorite books for Lectio-Divina (see Week One of the Advent Study) is Divine Intimacy, by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene.
This book provides meditations on the interior life for every day of the liturgical year. I have found it to be very efficacious.
One of the meditations offered by Father Gabriel for the fourth week of Advent is entitled, The Call to the Apostolate.
In it, he offers an insightful perspective of the Christian call to evangelization based on the words of St. John the Baptist, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" (Luke 3: 4). In the end, he tells us that "Jesus has need of us." When I read these words, they infused me with zeal.
Because I found this meditation so spiritually benefiicial, today I'd like to share with you what Father Gabriel presents.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (St. Edith Stein) wrote, "On the question of relation to our fellow men -- our neighbor's spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love."
These words express a great truth and they should be at the heart of every action we perform for another, especially as we seek to enter more deeply into the very heart of God given to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
"Love has hands to help others. It has feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. This is what love looks like."
In addition to those suggested in our slideshow, following is a list of resources that I recommended on Women of Grace Live, Ash Wednesday, March 5. Each of these is structured in such a way that it is perfect for a daily devotional during this Holy Season of Lent. They also are great resources for increasing our life of faith and strengthening our interior life. My prayer is that you find them so useful, you continue to use them once this Holy Season is over. Most of them are available through EWTN Religious Cataglogue or on our website.
One of my favorite books for Lectio-Divina (see Week One of the Advent Study) is 
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (St. Edith Stein) wrote, "On the question of relation to our fellow men -- our neighbor's spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love."
St. Augustine wrote,