With a new month comes a new focus for my happiness project! The season of Lent began yesterday so it seems like the perfect time to make my faith the focus of my happiness project.
I was born and raised Catholic and continue to practice my faith by attending mass weekly. Being Catholic is a big part of who I am. But I definitely have an opportunity to deepen my faith. Deepening my faith results in a greater level of peace, which in turn makes me more happy. Here is what I plan to focus on this month:
1. Faith-based book club. I signed up for a faith-based book club in March that is being organized by the church where we'll get married. We'll meet 3 times in March and discuss the book "Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart."This will also give me an opportunity to meet some other members of the church.
2. Read one other book related to faith. Besides reading the book for the church book club, I also want to read 1 other book with a message related to my faith. I have several on my book shelf and to-read list so it will be easy to find a book to read.
3. Establish a routine for daily prayer. I'm not great about making time for daily prayer each day. I want to focus on carving out time at the end of each day.
4. Go to Stations of the Cross 3 times during Lent. For those who aren't Catholic/aren't familiar with this Lenten tradition, the Stations of the Cross is a 14-part series of prayers led by a priest, commemorating the day of Jesus's crucifixion. It's typically done on Fridays during Lent and many Catholic churches (at least in larger urban areas) host fish fries afterwards. I used to go almost every week with my parents when I was young but haven't been in a very long time. There is a Catholic church 2 blocks from work that has stations of the cross at 11:15 every Friday so it should be fairly easy to go every other week during Lent.
I'm looking forward to a faith-filled month!
Do you have any goals or areas of focus for March?
You never lose when you make time for God! Your plan sounds really good, and you are fortunate that you have faith based book clubs and midday Lenten services available to you!
ReplyDeleteI haven't gotten around to Lent yet. I really should. Have you read Anne Lamott's "Help, thanks, Wow" -- it's small but oh, so very wonderful. I just love her writing.
ReplyDeleteI would really like to read more in March. I'm hoping going off of social media will help me with that!! Good luck with your March happiness challenge!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds fantastic! I recently finished a free kindle book called "the story of Jesus" that was only extracted stories from the gospels sorted chronologically. It provided a really different look at the life.
ReplyDeleteAlso easter music is my favorite. We are doing some incredible songs in church choir right now.
My March goals:
ReplyDeleteRead a big chunk of books for Youngstown State University English Festival. I'm going to this festival with 65 students for two days in April. I need to read all the required material. My students got first dibs on the books so I'm reading them as they finish up.
Grade all of my research papers by the end of the month. The kids turn their papers in on Mon 3/13. My goal is to take a chunk every single night and just do them. This will force me to get through the project much more quickly than I normally do.
Blog 3-5 times a week! I love blogging. I want to keep doing it :)
My biggest goal for March is to join a gym and start working out again. I miss having really good workouts and I hope joining a gym gives me the push I need.
ReplyDeleteFor the month of March I hope to try out some new recipes to blog about, and to create some menu plans to try out on future dinner guests :-)
ReplyDeleteI like that you have a monthly goal; I think it is more manageable and also more structured that just saying that you are going to do 12 things in a year. I feel like it is easier if you break it down into something that can be planned each month.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any "March" goals per se, although I am going with some friends to the Grand Canyon where we will do the Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R), which will be a lot of fun, although a bit of a challenge, as it is about 47 miles and the longest I have run in a while is 26 miles. I know I can do it, but it will be tiring! Other than that, I plan to keep working on the backyard, purge and photo projects, which will probably be ongoing throughout the year!
I've discovered that the more I learn about other religions the more my own faith is deepened. I am thankful for the freedoms that we have in this Nation. With everything going on right now I find myself praying more than ever! For me prayer is just on ongoing conversation throughout the day. When I see a post, or get a text, I say a prayer, I try to write things down in my notes on my phone so I remember to continue praying.
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