HCFMEA
Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? If not, there's still time, and Pope Francis has some ideas for you.
These are the ten things that he called upon Vatican employees to do:
1. “Take care of your spiritual life, your relationship with God, because this is the backbone of everything we do and everything we are.”
2. “Take care of your family life, giving your children and loved ones not just money, but most of all your time, attention and love.”
3. “Take care of your relationships with others, transforming your faith into life and your words into good works, especially on behalf of the needy.”
4. “Be careful how you speak, purify your tongue of offensive words, vulgarity and worldly decadence.”
5. “Heal wounds of the heart with the oil of forgiveness, forgiving those who have hurt us and medicating the wounds we have caused others.”
6. “Look after your work, doing it with enthusiasm, humility, competence, passion and with a spirit that knows how to thank the Lord.”
7. “Be careful of envy, lust, hatred and negative feelings that devour our interior peace and transform us into destroyed and destructive people.”
8. “Watch out for anger that can lead to vengeance; for laziness that leads to existential euthanasia; for pointing the finger at others, which leads to pride; and for complaining continually, which leads to desperation.”
9. “Take care of brothers and sisters who are weaker … the elderly, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and strangers, because we will be judged on this.”
10. “Making sure your Christmas is about Jesus and not about shopping.”
It’s a good list: it’s clearly rooted in Catholic teachings, but presented in a way that non-Catholics can embrace (I discovered this list via a Protestant friend who had posted it on Facebook, in fact). And I think that all of us can find on this list at least one or two resolutions that speak to areas in which we really need to grow.
Hope this helps, and happy New Year!
