new years resolutions

¹²Create a clean heart in me, O God. And renew an upright spirit within my inmost being. ¹³Do not cast me away from your face; and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

¹²It is not as though I have already received this, or were already perfect. But rather I pursue, so that by some means I might attain, that in which I have already been attained by Christ Jesus. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have already attained this. Instead, I do one thing: forgetting those things that are behind, and extending myself toward those things that are ahead, ¹⁴I pursue the destination, the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Therefore, as many of us as are being perfected, let us agree about this. And if in anything you disagree, God will reveal this to you also.

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end.

¹³But who are you to judge your neighbor? Consider this, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into that city, and certainly we will spend a year there, and we will do business, and we will make our profit,” ¹⁴consider that you do not know what will be tomorrow. ¹⁵For what is your life? It is a mist that appears for a brief time, and afterwards will vanish away. So what you ought to say is: “If the Lord wills,” or, “If we live,” we will do this or that. ¹⁶But now you exult in your arrogance. All such exultation is wicked. ¹⁷Therefore, he who knows that he ought to do a good thing, and does not do it, for him it is a sin.

⁹The heart of man disposes his way. But it is for Lord to direct his steps.

¹⁴And above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection. ¹⁵And let the peace of Christ lift up your hearts. For in this peace, you have been called, as one body. And be thankful.

³¹And exactly as you would want people to treat you, treat them also the same.

¹⁸You need not call to mind the past, nor consider the things of antiquity. ¹⁹Behold, I am accomplishing new things. And presently, they will spring forth. With certainty, you will know them. I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in an impassible place.

¹³Is any of you sad? Let him pray. Is he even-tempered? Let him sing psalms. ¹⁴Is anyone ill among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And a prayer of faith will save the infirm, and the Lord will alleviate him. And if he has sins, these will be forgiven him. ¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be saved. For the unremitting prayer of a just person prevails over many things.

¹⁸And Jesus, drawing near, spoke to them, saying: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹Therefore, go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have ever commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.”

¹⁵Be solicitous in the task of presenting yourself before God as a proven and unashamed worker who has handled the Word of Truth correctly.

²⁷But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. ²⁸Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who slander you.

⁴⁰NUN. Let us examine our ways, and seek out, and return to the Lord.

¹⁸Through every kind of prayer and supplication, pray at all times in spirit, and so be vigilant with every kind of earnest supplication, for all the saints,

¹A Psalm of David. The Lord directs me, and nothing will be lacking to me.

¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went on to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. ¹⁷And, seeing him, they worshipped him, but certain ones doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus, drawing near, spoke to them, saying: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹Therefore, go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have ever commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.”

¹⁷So if anyone is a new creature in Christ, what is old has passed away. Behold, all things have been made new.

²⁸And we know that, for those who love God, all things work together unto good, for those who, in accordance with his purpose, are called to be saints.

¹⁷And so, I say this, and I testify in the Lord: that from now on you should walk, not as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, ¹⁸having their intellect obscured, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is within them, because of the blindness of their hearts. ¹⁹Such as these, despairing, have given themselves over to sexual immorality, carrying out every impurity with rapacity. ²⁰But this is not what you have learned in Christ. ²¹For certainly, you have listened to him, and you have been instructed in him, according to the truth that is in Jesus: ²²to set aside your earlier behavior, the former man, who was corrupted, by means of desire, unto error,

²³Examine me, O God, and know my heart. Question me, and know my paths. ²⁴And see if there might be in me the way of iniquity, and lead me in the way of eternity.