Reform of Life 

Introduction:

The Spiritual Exercises are a brief moment of retreat into the silence that help us to see more clearly. Personal resolutions are the major fruit of our retreat. At the end of the retreat, life will return to us, with its regular obligations and schedule. Resolutions, made during the retreat, will be very helpful.

The plan of life:

During your free time in the day, you can spend time making a Plan of Life. This consists in four areas: resolutions for the Spiritual Life, Community Life, Intellectual Life, and Apostolic Life. These are traditionally understood as the pillars. The spiritual life is the most fundamental and serves as a foundation. For community life, those with families should give priority to those in their own house, since they are important means of sanctification for one another. All people must be resolved to make community. The Intellectual life important because it helps ground and center a person in the midst of wrong ideas in the world. Especially if you are in charge of leading others, it is good to be centered on sound intellectual principles. Having Catholic intellectual formation will give more joy and stability to life. Not all are scholars, but all people will benefit from some degree of intellectual activity. The fourth pillar is that of Apostolic Life. Every person is meant to receive, but also to give. If a person does not selflessly give of themselves, they will be lacking a critical part of a balanced life. In one way or another, all are called to an apostolate. This might be done in a quiet, unnoticed way, depending on God’s will. The important part is to have an active part in building up the Body of Christ.

How to make a Plan of Life:

We can end up spending a lot of time reflecting and devising a Plan of Life. Two characteristic features of the Plan of Life: Realistic & Brief. Accurate self-knowledge is essential for both of these.

If someone habitually falls into mortal sin — this will be the first place to make resolutions. One does not give themselves to other things until living in the state of sanctifying grace becomes a normal way of life. The normal means for acquiring this is forming a regular prayer life and the regular reception of the sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist.

In other cases, a person may feel God asking them to overcome a particular fault or to practice a certain virtue.  The Plan of Life is not a perfect, fail-proof plan – but more of a plan for concrete actions, so that the person moves generally in right direction.    

Below are some possible resolutions, but one does not necessarily need to adopt them. The plan should be concrete, realistic and brief.

Spiritual Life:

Sacramental Life (Eucharist, Confession)

Submitting myself to a wise Spiritual Director

Pray:

• Prioritizing Prayer in my day: specific times, amount of time
• Devotions: Rosary

Mortification: suffering something in order to gain a better disposition

• Regular Confession (very humbling)
• Fridays as a day of penance
• Battling to overcome myself: Gossip, Comforts
• * Mortification will give strength to all areas of your plan.

Spiritual Reading: Drinking from the wisdom of Scripture and the Saints

• Setting specific time aside to read
• Specific types of books, parts of the Bible to read

Community:

• Regular examination of particular faults against those I live with
• Resolving to build up the community: being present to others, making an effort for a particular virtue

Intellectual

Study: not necessarily religious study per se.

• Comment to intellectual a certain topic that will help me think better: music, history, philosophy, etc
• Avoiding superficial or trivial thing in social life

Apostolic Life

• Those in a family: a particular person that I want to treat with charity; Doing particular things to serve others or to build a Christian community spirit.
• Those in Religious Life: ways to infuse the community with charity, identifying specific times to build up my community. Do I pray for those in my community?

Conclusion:

The Plan of Life is the most tangible fruit of the Spiritual Exercises. These are moments when you are well-recollected and the will of God is more evident. Even if you only have one or two resolutions, if they are the fruit of prayer, they will be very valuable.