ake a plan and stick with it.<\/strong><\/p>\nMuch like you don’t go out and run a marathon without training, you can’t realistically expect to change your habits during the month of Advent. If you don’t regularly pray, try saying a decade of the rosary. If you consistently pray a decade of the rosary, try a whole rosary each day.<\/p>\n
We’re not done preparing our hearts and soul after Advent, we’re in it for the long haul (so to speak). We can use this period of Advent as a time to help change our habits for good.<\/p>\n
So, make a plan. Make a plan to pray evening prayer every night, spend at extra 15 minutes of prayer a day, or make prayer at the dinner table with family a priority.<\/p>\n
And most of all, enjoy this Advent and Christmas season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I believe that sometimes you just have to be a little bit silly. There are a ton of these things on the Internet called gifs, so here I present to you a fun little set of Catholic themed gifs. My friends and I when it comes time to exchange the sign of peace… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,32],"tags":[1214,1212,945,1215,1213],"class_list":["post-27248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-blog","category-social-media","tag-advent-challenge","tag-catholic-gifs","tag-meme","tag-quirky-catholic-things","tag-silly","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":327920,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/objectivity-healthy-self-love-advent-reflection-catholic-guilt\/","url_meta":{"origin":27248,"position":0},"title":"Objectivity & Healthy Self-love: An Advent reflection on “Catholic Guilt”","author":"Rachel","date":"November 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Catholic guilt\" came up recently in a conversation about psychology and religion. It also came up sometimes back in my grad school counseling classes. In\u00a0these conversations, I often hear the question, \"Isn't \"Catholic guilt\" psychologically unhealthy?\" I think it's a great question. Can there be something unhealthy about guilt?\u00a0I think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Child Praying at Mother's Knee\" By Edouard Fr\u00e8re (1819\u20131886) , used from the WikiCommons","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/520px-Pierre-E%CC%81douard_Fre%CC%80re_-_Child_Praying_at_Mothers_Knee_-_Walters_371330.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":181792,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/love-is-always-in-the-air\/","url_meta":{"origin":27248,"position":1},"title":"Love is [Always] in the Air","author":"Adam Shaivitz","date":"December 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Can you feel the love? I sure can. But until a few weeks ago, I had never felt it so clearly and so dramatically. \u201cGod is Love\u201d\u00a0and love is his first gift, containing all others. \u201cGod\u2019s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Porthole","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ferry-648799_1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":183762,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/most-powerful-woman-in-the-world-national-geographic\/","url_meta":{"origin":27248,"position":2},"title":"The Most Powerful Woman in the World (A Response to the “National Geographic” Feature)","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"December 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Everybody loves Mary. If you're a Catholic reading this on its original publication date, you have recently gone or will be going to Mass to honor her as the Immaculate Conception. (Otherwise, the next page you visit might be the closest parish's confession times.) You probably heard the same homily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mary statue, sad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/sxc_dogmadic-mary_sad-525x700.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/sxc_dogmadic-mary_sad-525x700.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/sxc_dogmadic-mary_sad-525x700.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":180704,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/review-new-testament-basics-for-catholics\/","url_meta":{"origin":27248,"position":3},"title":"The Story of the King and His Kingdom (Review: “New Testament Basics for Catholics”)","author":"Lindsay Wilcox","date":"December 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to a few years of Bible studies, I could easily tell you that the \"plot\" of the Bible is the fulfillment of the covenant between God and his people. Now I can tell you that the New Testament has its own \"subplot,\" so to speak. A few summers ago,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A review of \"New Testament Basics for Catholics\" at AustinCNM.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/acnm-newtestamentbasics-550x367.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/acnm-newtestamentbasics-550x367.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/acnm-newtestamentbasics-550x367.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":181178,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/in-the-spirit-of-advent\/","url_meta":{"origin":27248,"position":4},"title":"In the Spirit of Advent","author":"Ablaze Ministries","date":"December 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Every year during Advent, the Johnson clan leads a church-wide food drive.\u00a0 We ask our church community to draw a family from our sister parish in downtown Houston and pray for them, give them boxes of food, and maybe get them a present or two.\u00a0 Then two Uhauls get filled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/faith-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Advent-CCFM","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Advent-CCFM-550x366.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Advent-CCFM-550x366.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Advent-CCFM-550x366.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":182741,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/the-prayers-2nd-sunday-of-advent\/","url_meta":{"origin":27248,"position":5},"title":"The Prayers – 2nd Sunday of Advent","author":"William Rooney","date":"December 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Since we can learn much from what we pray day in and day out in our Liturgy it would be profitable for us to reflect more profoundly upon the prayers of each day. We should especially do this over the season of Advent which marks the end of one liturgical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Column"","block_context":{"text":"Column","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/column\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Advent-CCFM","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Advent-CCFM-285x190.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a><\/p>\n