Resolutions for this new year

"To be joyful and to practice spiritual poverty. Joyful in spite of, or even because of, this prostration, discomfort, and lassitude into which my physical miseries sometimes plunge me. Serenity within, and always gentleness and smiles without, amiable when I feel bad-tempered, welcoming when I long for solitude, patient and cheerful when I feel weary and tense.

To be spiritually poor, detached from all that is purely human, and to the extent possible with the duties of my state, to practice a little [physical] poverty in what concerns me alone. Poverty of spiritual joys, of the heart, of life’s satisfactions, deprivation, abandonment.

At the same time, more tenderness of heart, more warm and supernatural affections, more sympathy for all, more compassion for those who suffer, more kindness and delicate attentiveness to my dear people. Not to repulse, scorn, or neglect anyone. Not to allow the slightest sign of bitterness or irritation.”

-- The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur by the Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur