Anicka is originally from the Czech Republic, and spent a year working at our retreat centre before joining the youth team. She's hoping to go on to study Psychology or Primary School Teaching.
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It is the 31st December, 23:59, everyone is impatiently waiting for the sound of the bell announcing: “Let‘s make a fresh step in this adventure called life“. New year, new opportunities, new people. 2015 is past. 2016 is a secret soon to be discovered. New year is like a new page in a book, blank paper waiting for a us to write a story. How exciting!
Everyone wants to be happy, that‘s why we‘re making new years resolutions. Eat healthy, run at least once per week, pray every day, stop looking on facebook. It‘s easy to make a decision. But how long does it last?
My decision was to pray every evening before I go to sleep. First day was great! I was so proud of myself. Next few days went well too. But then after a week things started getting harder. Sometimes I didn‘t pray because I was so tired, another time because I forgot. Little by little I turned back to my old ways.
Why is it soooo hard???
Most of the time I relied on will power... But I forgot how easy it is to forget. St. Ignatius said: “pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you.“ OK. I want to pray and I think I can pray. But how do I accomplish the part about doing my best?
And so I looked up on the internet to find some help.
1. Be simple and specific
Choose your goal, be simple but concrete.
2. Change the environment around you
I decided to pray a decade of the rosary, but because I forget so often I put my rosary next to my bed so it‘s the first thing I see when I go to bed and reminds me to pray.
3. Be real
Don‘t try to run marathon if you can‘t run for 10 mins. Sometimes we want to feel so holy, so we set big goals like: read a chapter in the Bible, meditate on it for an hour, then pray a rosary Impossible, isn‘t it?! I started just with a little decade of the rosary. Simple, but enough of a challenge for me to persevere.. And it works!
4. Start immediately
When I lived in a boarding school, on our door hung a poster of a lazy looking camel saying: Leave your tasks for the day after tomorrow and tomorrow you are free. Not the best motivation to study. But a good excuse not to.
5. Accept the responsibility of your decision and tell others about it
It might feel awkward telling other people, but it really help. Maybe they are also struggling. Once my friends and I decided to meet every evening and pray for our A- levels, but many times we forgot or we were too busy. So we asked other girls to join us. Many of them were really excited about this idea! We started to pray every evening for 10 mins. It was great... AND all of us passed our exams!
6. It may not be comfortable, but it is worth it.
One day I was really tired, my bed was so comfortable, but I realized that I forgot to pray. There are two very good things…. Sleep or prayer? … So I made a compromise. I stayed in bed and picked up my rosary and prayed. Next time I might be able to turn my light on. Other time I might even sit or kneel. It just takes time to build up to your full goal.
There’s a Czech saying – Patience brings roses. We want everything now and without any work if possible. But let us be patient and wait for roses (and all the other great things that come with time and commitment)!
“Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you.“ St. Ignatius
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