{"id":1215,"date":"2011-01-01T08:49:07","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T16:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2016-10-05T18:54:13","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T01:54:13","slug":"55-ways-to-start-the-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/55-ways-to-start-the-new-year","title":{"rendered":"55 Ways to Start the New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oregon<\/p>\n

Three years ago for Lent, Orthodox priest Fr. Tom Hopko wrote a list of “things that a believer would do if he were really a believer.” As 2011 begins, this is going to be the list I use for my spiritual development. Here are his 55 maxims (If you’re interested in a fuller explanation of the maxims, be sure to listen to this episode of Fr. Tom’s podcast, “Speaking the Truth in Love”<\/a>):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be always with Christ and trust God in everything<\/li>\n
  2. Pray as you can, not as you think you must<\/li>\n
  3. Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline<\/li>\n
  4. Say the Lord\u2019s Prayer several times each day<\/li>\n
  5. Repeat a short prayer when your mind is not occupied<\/li>\n
  6. Make some prostrations when you pray<\/li>\n
  7. Eat good foods in moderation and fast on fasting days<\/li>\n
  8. Practice silence, inner and outer<\/li>\n
  9. Sit in silence 20 to 30 minutes each day<\/li>\n
  10. Do acts of mercy in secret<\/li>\n
  11. Go to liturgical services regularly<\/li>\n
  12. Go to confession and holy communion regularly<\/li>\n
  13. Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings<\/li>\n
  14. Reveal all your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person regularly<\/li>\n
  15. Read the scriptures regularly<\/li>\n
  16. Read good books, a little at a time<\/li>\n
  17. Cultivate communion with the saints<\/li>\n
  18. Be an ordinary person, one of the human race<\/li>\n
  19. Be polite with everyone, first of all family members<\/li>\n
  20. Maintain cleanliness and order in your home<\/li>\n
  21. Have a healthy, wholesome hobby<\/li>\n
  22. Exercise regularly<\/li>\n
  23. Live a day, even a part of a day, at a time<\/li>\n
  24. Be totally honest, first of all with yourself<\/li>\n
  25. Be faithful in little things<\/li>\n
  26. Do your work, then forget it<\/li>\n
  27. Do the most difficult and painful things first<\/li>\n
  28. Face reality<\/li>\n
  29. Be grateful<\/li>\n
  30. Be cheerful<\/li>\n
  31. Be simple, hidden, quiet and small<\/li>\n
  32. Never bring attention to yourself<\/li>\n
  33. Listen when people talk to you<\/li>\n
  34. Be awake and attentive, fully present where you are<\/li>\n
  35. Think and talk about things no more than necessary<\/li>\n
  36. Speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly<\/li>\n
  37. Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out<\/li>\n
  38. Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance<\/li>\n
  39. Don\u2019t complain, grumble, murmur or whine<\/li>\n
  40. Don\u2019t seek or expect pity or praise<\/li>\n
  41. Don\u2019t compare yourself with anyone<\/li>\n
  42. Don\u2019t judge anyone for anything<\/li>\n
  43. Don\u2019t try to convince anyone of anything<\/li>\n
  44. Don\u2019t defend or justify yourself<\/li>\n
  45. Be defined and bound by God, not people<\/li>\n
  46. Accept criticism gracefully and test it carefully<\/li>\n
  47. Give advice only when asked or when it is your duty<\/li>\n
  48. Do nothing for people that they can and should do for themselves<\/li>\n
  49. Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice<\/li>\n
  50. Be merciful with yourself and others<\/li>\n
  51. Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath<\/li>\n
  52. Focus exclusively on God and light, and never on darkness, temptation and sin<\/li>\n
  53. Endure the trial of yourself and your faults serenely, under God\u2019s mercy<\/li>\n
  54. When you fall, get up immediately and start over<\/li>\n
  55. Get help when you need it, without fear or shame<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Three years ago for Lent, Orthodox priest Fr. Tom Hopko wrote a list of “things that a believer would do if he were really a believer.” As 2011 begins, this is going to be the list I use for my spiritual development. Here are his 55 maxims (If you’re interested in a fuller explanation of the maxims, be sure to listen to this episode of Fr. Tom’s podcast, “Speaking the Truth in Love”): Be always with Christ and trust God in everything Pray as you can, not as...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spirituality","tag-lent","tag-resolutions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/oregon_sunset.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-jB","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3387,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/3387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}