Saints and Resolutions for 2014

Our family is continuing the tradition of choosing a patron saint to be our special intercessor for the new year.  A friend of mine who has a special devotion to St. Faustina first told me about this beautiful tradition a few years ago when she shared the following excerpt from Faustina's diary:

"Jesus likes to intervene in the smallest details of our life, and He often fulfills secret wishes of mine that I sometimes hide from Him, although I know that from Him nothing can be hidden.  There is a custom among [the sisters in our convent] of drawing by lot, on New Year's Day, for special patrons for ourselves for the whole year.  In the morning during meditation, there arose within me a secret desire that the Eucharistic Jesus be my special patron for this year also, as in the past.  But hiding this desire from my Beloved, I spoke to Him about everything else but that.  When the sisters gathered for breakfast, we blessed ourselves and began drawing our patrons.  When I approached the holy cards on which the names of the patrons were written, without hesitation I took one, but I didn't read the name immediately as I wanted to mortify myself for a few minutes.  Suddenly, I heard a voice in my soul:  I am your patron.  Read.  I looked at once at the inscription and read, "Patron for the Year 1935--the most Blessed Eucharist."  My heart leapt with joy, and I slipped quietly away from the sisters and went for a short visit before the Blessed Sacrament, where I poured out my heart.  (entry 360)

So, just like we've done the past few years, all of us wrote down 5-10 saint names and placed them in a hat...  Here are the results of the saints that God desired each of us to have for 2014:

Paul:  St. Maria Goretti
Maria:  St. Dominic Savio
Joseph:  St. Thomas Aquinas
Michael:  the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Dominic:  St. Padre Pio
Nathanael:  St. Paul
Isaiah:  Our Lady of  Medjugorje

As for New Year's resolutions this year, we have re-resolved to read the Bible aloud at the table after supper.  I say "re-resolved" because we've tried to do this before, but the habit never has stuck for long.  Hopefully, this time, with the help of God's grace, it will become a daily habit for our family that will reap eternal rewards.  We decided to start with the book of Romans, and each night we take turns reading a chapter out load and talking about how God's word can be applied to our lives.  We borrowed this idea from Ann Voskamp's blog because I have always been inspired by how her family reads the Bible together around the dinner table as a reminder that "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word which comes forth from the mouth of God" (Deuteronomy 8:3 and Matthew 4:4).

By the way, if any of you readers would like me to draw a saint name for you, I'd be more than happy to do so...  Just post a comment below that I will reply to, or you can send me an email if you'd prefer to correspond that way: (pmhurlbert@gmail.com).