“Empty yourself, fill yourself with God, and climb step by step.”
(Everyday Sanctity)
With the arrival of a new year, it is common for us to take stock and write down goals for the months ahead. The change in the calendar invites us, almost naturally, to rethink our lives, projects, and future goals.
Do you also tend to do this exercise? Have you stopped to write down your goals and think about the concrete ways to achieve them?
Inspired by the book “Everyday Sanctity” (Werktagsheiligkeit), written by Fr. Joseph Kentenich and Sr. M. Annette Nailis, we have gathered some ideas that can enlighten our New Year’s resolutions, integrating faith, daily life, and mission.
Spiritual world
The starting point for good planning is union with God. It is from this union that all of life finds its purpose.
Prayer and mortification (sacrifices made out of love) are indicated as privileged paths for this approach. But how can we translate them into concrete gestures in daily life? Fr. Kentenich points out some points that can help us on this path.
1) Turn away from sin
This first aspect has a direct impact on many other goals. In various situations, sin distances us from the goals we wish to achieve. Gluttony and laziness, for example, make it challenging to take care of our health; excessive use of social media steals precious time from family life.
“Love impels us to action,” says Fr. Kentenich, because “it always seeks what gives pleasure to the beloved and avoids what displeases them.”
In this way, turning away from sin is both a goal and a path for the new year. Here, the Spiritual Schedule can help identify specific points of change that will facilitate this turning away.
2) Becoming like God
Another central element presented by our Father and Founder is the constant effort to become like God. “To the last fiber, the Christian is bound to God’s will… out of love. And the more he advances in his endeavor, the more clearly this characteristic stands out.”
Among our goals for the year, we can think of a characteristic of God that we want to improve, such as tenderness, mercy, fatherhood, gentleness, etc. And we can put specific resolutions for this in the Spiritual Schedule.
3) The aspiration to heroism
The third point concerns the inner attitude with which we pursue our goals. At the beginning of the year, motivation is usually high, but as time goes by, enthusiasm can wane. At such times, Fr. Kentenich invites us to turn our gaze to the Blessed Mother, to the lives of the saints, and to the heroes of Schoenstatt.
This is where discipline and a heroic spirit come into play.
“Only a great love of God can generate this driving force and determine the intensity of this heroic struggle and aspiration in daily life.”
Professional world
Holiness in daily life also offers profound reflections for professional life and for the various activities that make up our daily lives.
Consistency of life
An essential aspect is consistency, which Fr. Kentenich calls “harmonious connection.” The faith lived on Sunday must extend to the rest of the week.
It makes no sense to assume Christian principles within the Church and, outside of it, to adopt attitudes contrary to what Christ and the Church teach. This harmonious connection is also related to balance: knowing how to balance the time devoted to work with that for rest, socializing, and family life.
Giving one’s best at work
According to Fr. Kentenich, our relationship to work should be “elevated, constant, and affectionate.” In other words, we should perform every task “with all our heart.”
For our founder, the work we do has been entrusted to us by God through Divine Providence. Therefore, it should not be done according to our whims, but with dedication, love, and inner availability:
“The holy will of God is committed to the accomplishment of this task. Therefore, as long as God desires it, it demands all your attention and the maximum deployment of your creative strength so that, both internally and externally, it may be accomplished with perfection, that is, with intimate love for God and for God’s sake, and be a tribute of praise and glory to the heavenly Father.”
Fr. Kentenich also reminds us that holiness comes through faithfulness to small things:
“If the work is unpleasant, he [the Christian] does not run away or hide. Nor does he leave it to the last minute. ‘Sanctus est, qui sancte vivit’. Holy is not the one who lives on dreams and fantasies, but the one who truly lives holy, who seeks to imprint on all his works the seal of internal and external perfection.”
Personal relationships
The bond with our neighbor is perhaps one of the most challenging areas of life. Here too, Fr. Kentenich guides us to become like Christ and to love to the extent of total self-giving.
This applies both to relationships with superiors—parents, teachers, bosses, etc.—and to those entrusted to us —children, students, group/community members, spouses, or employees.
“Today’s Christian knows the art of sanctifying all his relationships and transforming them into a divine office. In the light of faith, he knows that God speaks to him through his superiors, that He wants to guide and sanctify him through them.”
“In their relationships with others, they always show great respect, because they know how to recognize and honor God in people, particularly in their superiors.”
“Respect accompanies Christians everywhere, including in their relationships with their fellow human beings, whoever they may be.”
“As a superior, too, in his relationships with his subordinates, the Christian always proceeds with the utmost respect. He knows that, as a superior, he must be an image of the heavenly Father who, in his creative fatherhood, does everything with love, for love, and for the sake of love.”
Final advice
In conclusion, some practical guidelines can help you take concrete steps toward your New Year’s goals:
- Choose a few clear and achievable goals;
- Define a concrete plan to achieve them: the “how.”
- Involve people who can support and accompany you in this process;
- Offer everything as a contribution to the Capital of Grace, offering efforts, failures, and new beginnings.
Thus, step by step, holiness ceases to be a distant ideal and becomes a possible path, lived out in everyday life.
