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What Next?
As you begin to implement or deepen these disciplines,
you will, by God’s grace and provision, lay a foundation
that is, in and of itself, the most powerful healing
and liberating force you can know. You will begin living
by what is known in Catholic Tradition as a rule of life,
or what we call in our community of Apostoli Viae, a
“plan of love.” A plan of love is simply a purposeful way
to live and love God and those He has placed in our care.
A good plan always has concrete commitments that you
make to God and your loved ones on a daily, weekly, or
monthly basis. A simple plan of love might look something
like this:
·Daily mental prayer: wake up at 6:00 a.m. and
pray for ten minutes, focusing on that day’s Gospel
reading for Mass.
·Daily Rosary: pray one decade on the way to
work.
·Attend Mass every Sunday without fail.
·Go to Confession every other week.
The final step in your foundation is what is known as
the examen, or examination of conscience. You might
have heard the phrase in business “What gets measured
gets done.” The same principle applies in the life of the
soul who truly desires to give itself to God and to know
the peace and joy He has for it. It is common to hear
folks shy away from the examen because they have been
taught a predominantly negative approach that is solely
focused on where they have failed or what they have
done wrong. This is not the approach that I recommend.
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