What Kind of Prayer Makes You Feel Most Alive?
Go Gently into 2023, like Mary
Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash
This year will bring no firm year-long resolutions. Instead, I’m taking 2023 a step at a time.
I had the best of intentions last year with some very clear goals and expectations, but God had other plans, and they changed along the way.
That experience taught me you can’t plan for what an entire year will bring. You can just take it a step at a time as the Holy Spirit leads.
So in 2023, I will be gentler with myself. This year, I will be gently walking with the Holy Spirit, listening, and pondering what God is doing, like Mary’s example teaches us today. I’ll change course when prompted.
No hard and fast year-long commitments. No rules on myself. No strict regimens. No ambitious goals. I’m tired of being hard on and expecting too much of myself.
Just moving with the gentle flow of the Holy Spirit while trying to live a little healthier, wiser, more peacefully, and closer to God.
I’m trying Mary’s style this year. Being a gentle woman. A trusting woman. A reflective and pondering woman. A woman that is more “being” than “doing.” A woman who takes the next step that God lays out for her without knowing how the story ends.
About the Author
Katie Zalany lives in Cleveland Ohio. She is a Third Order Secular Franciscan (OFS), spiritual director, benefits/wellness leader, and certified health and life coach. She volunteers with St. Vincent de Paul Society serving the poor, is an active mentor to many individuals, and a prolific writer. Her writing interests and focus areas include spiritual development, reflections on the Gospel life, Franciscian spirituality, prayer, and integration of faith and work/daily living. She is the published author of Called to Corporate: Lessons of Growing in Faith and Holiness from the Corporate Cubicle.
