Most Important New Year's Resolution: Making Space

I think the most important New Year's resolution for me is to make space - make space for increased awareness of God's presence in my life. Augustine says, "my soul is too crampled for your to enter it - widen it out. It is in disrepair - restore it." 

Spiritual growth happens when we make space for God's presence in our lives. Modernity with its pervasive materialism and cognitive overload, which comes by the way of hoarded homes and the buzz of social media frazzling our mind, makes it difficult to make space for God's presence in our lives.

One way to counteract modernism's corrosive nature is to consciously make space for God's presence. One important way of this making space is performing ceaseless prayers. I have found it to be most useful for my life is to say short prayers through the day, "Father have mercy on me." "Father take care." "Jesus, Son of God have mercy on me."

Taking a quick moment at different points in the day to say these prayers helps me be aware of God's presence through the day. This way of making space for God's presence mitigates modernity's inexorable chipping away of my spirit; thus fostering spiritual growth.