Time to Re-Evaluate Your Plan of Life

Black Eyed Peas and Resolutions
We associate New Year's Eve with parties and 12 O'clock kisses. New Year's Day is associated with black eyed peas and New Year's resolutions. At Joe Catholic we have associated the start of the new year as an opportunity to evaluate and initiate Spiritual Plans of Life, in other words an organized system of daily prayer.

Online Series
This Saturday we will have our 10th annual workshop on this topic. Today, we begin an online series on developing a spiritual game plan by sharing last year's talk. In the days to follow we will share resources, systems and tips for helping you implement and succeed at developing your daily prayer regimen.

Last Year's Workshop Video

Plan of LIfe: Spiritual Inventory

By Stayskal

Spiritual Inventory

Caveat discipulus!
Before you complete this inventory, let me offer a few disclaimers. First, this is not a scientific survey. I constructed the survey based on various suggested norms for developing a plan of life.

Sacrificial Praise
The survey is not meant to suggest that someone is more or less holy than another. Neither is intended to mean that someone scoring high on the scale has a "ticket punched to heaven." This is not about marking off as many tasks on a To Do List. The reality is that someone could be doing all the things on the survey, including attendance at Daily Mass and still not be properly disposed. The author of Psalm 50 reveals God’s standard for appropriate public worship – a properly inclined interior disposition or what the Church father's have described as "sacrificial praise." St. Augustine beautifully summarizes this notion; “Anyone who wants to offer a whole burnt offering to God must be wholly on fire with divine love. These are the kinds of whole burnt offerings that are ‘before me always’” (St. Augustine, in Craig A. Blaising and Carmen S. Harding, Old Testament Vol. VII in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture Series, p. 387)

Instructions
Write the number that best describes the present state of your prayer life and then total them. There is a scale at the end of the survey to gauge your status. Be honest with yourself; you are only cheating yourself if you fudge the numbers upwards. Finally, don't be discouraged if you score low. I myself did not do very well. As I already knew, I had allowed my graduate studies to interfere with my own Plan of Life.

THE SURVEY

How often do you make a morning offering (prayer)?

Never – 0 points

Once a week – 1 point

More than once a week – 2 points

Every day – 3 points

How much time do you spend reading the Bible?

Never – 0 points

Once a week – 1 point

More than once a week – 2 points

Every day – 3 points

At least 5 minutes a day or daily readings – 5 points

How much time do you spend reading spiritual material (not including Bible and only Catholic material)?

Never – 0 points

Once a week – 1 point

More than once a week – 2 points

Every day – 3 points

At least 15 minutes a day – 5 points

How much time do you spend in mental prayer (talking to God)?

Never – 0 points

Once a week – 1 point

More than once a week – 2 points

Every day – 3 points

At least 15 minutes a day – 5 points

How often do you pray the Rosary?

Never – 0 points

Once a week – 1 point

More than once a week – 2 points

Every day – 3 points

How often do you attend Mass?

Never – Subtract 15 points

Only on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation – 2 point

More than once a week – 3 points

Every day – 5 points

How often do you receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

Never – Subtract 15 points

Once a Year – 1 point

As needed – 2 points

Quarterly – 3 points

Monthly – 5 points

How often do you pray before the Blessed Sacrament?

Never – 0 points

At least once a month – 1 point

One hour a week – 3 points

At least 15 minutes a day – 5 points

Bonus Points:

Pray the Liturgy of the Hours – Add 3 points

Pray the Angelus daily – add 2 points

Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet – add 2 points

Other daily devotional (not listed) – add 2 points

Add your points and compare your total to the scale below.

32-35: You have a sound Plan of Life. You should consider Spiritual Direction to aid in your continued spiritual development.

28-31: You are on your way to developing good habits. Reflect on those areas that need improvement.

25-27: You have started to exercise a daily prayer life, but you need to work on being consistent and developing a set plan of action.

0-24: You may be taking a minimalist approach to your prayer life. You either don’t have a plan for developing your prayer life or you are ignoring it.  You may be in danger of becoming tepid and disconnected. Remember that prayer is essentially a conversation with our Lord. No relationship can be sustained without consistent communication.

Up Next
The next post in our series on developing a Plan of Life will be an overview of the recommended daily habits. If the post is not too long, we will also begin our deeper discussion of the details of the POL by looking at the Morning Offering.

Plan of Life: Getting Started

Source: Huffington Post

Spiritual Resolution

Today, we continue our multi-part series on developing a daily plan of life, a spiritual game plan to improve our prayer life and grow closer to Christ. It is fitting that we talk about this at the beginning of the year since so many people are focusing on New Year's Resolutions. What could be more important than resolving to grow closer to Christ?

New Year's Resolutions

According to the University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology the top 10 resolutions people will have made for the year 2014, in order of rank, are:

1. Lose Weight
2. Getting Organized
3. Spend Less, Save More
4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest
5. Staying Fit and Healthy
6. Learn Something Exciting
7. Quit Smoking
8. Help Others in Their Dreams
9. Fall in Love
10. Spend More Time with Family

Notice that none of these resolutions make any mention of improving their relationship with God or even something as improving their spiritual life.

Most Will Fail

According to the same source most of the people who make New Year's Resolutions will fail:

• 75% Make it through 1st Week
• 64% Make it one Month
• 46% Make it 6 months
•  8% Success Rate

The Folly of the Fool
The author of Proverbs teaches that “as a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Anyone who has ever owned a dog has seen this happen. The author of Proverbs is saying that when we make no efforts to change our ways, we might as well be licking up our own vomit. I hope this earthy piece of spiritual advice will motivate you to consider developing a plan to improve your prayer life.

Advice on How to Succeed - SPAM

The statistics we reviewed above demonstrate that most people will not succeed in following through with their resolutions to change. Based on the research we did on making and setting goals, we have narrowed a strategy for success to four basic actions: Start, Persevere, Accountability and Measure or SPAM.

Start!

It sounds ridiculously simple, but the first step in making a change in your spiritual development is to begin. This means taking a few actions. This can include getting organized and sorting out the areas that you want to improve upon so that you can begin a plan of action. Tomorrow we will help you address this with a Spiritual Inventory.

Persevere

Once you get started, you must commit to persevering. Remember 1/3 of the people don't even make it a month. While most people think it takes about 21 days to develop a habit, but this is a myth. Research conducted by psychologists suggests that building a habit takes about 66 days or two months. Inevitably there are going to be a few bumps in the road, but we just have to plow through and commit to stick to it. Yes, this means we must be disciplined.

Accountable
Having an accountability system is important to succeeding in your goal. One way you can do this is to ask a friend to be your accountability buddy. I recall when I first came back to the Church after attending a CRHP Retreat, I began meeting with +Charles Gura once a week to discuss our spiritual development.  Furthermore, I can tell you from my experience with weight loss, that accountability works. When I attended my Weight Watchers' meetings and weigh-ins, I lost 80 pounds. The moment I stopped going to meetings, I started putting the weight back on. In the beginning, I recommend meeting with your accountability buddy once a week for the first two month, After that you can probably meet less frequently.

Measurable and Track
The final strategy to aid in succeeding is to make sure you specific and measurable goals to improving your prayer life. You can't just say "I want to get closer to God." Instead, you should plan something like, "I will dedicate 15 minutes of prayer time each morning at 5AM." This is specific, detailed and can be measured. Along with this, I recommend writing down or logging your daily actions to record your progress. This will help you stay on track. You can do this in a written journal or on a smart phone. I actually use a Plan of Life App.

Tomorrow, we will publish a Spiritual Inventory survey for you to take on your own, so you can gauge where you are in your own prayer life.

Video: Developing a Spiritual Game Plan

Planning the Plan
This morning at our Joe Catholic Workshop, I gave my annual, first-of-the-year-talk on developing a spiritual game plan (aka plan of life). I intend to share the notes and video from this year's talk as soon as I finish the edits. Beginning tomorrow, I plan a more in depth discussion of the details of the suggested plan of life. I will be sharing lots of resources including a suggested reading list. For now, I'd like to share the videos from last year's talk to get you thinking about developing your own daily plan of prayer.
Plan of Life - Part 1

Plan of Life - Part 2