How do you make yourself want to do "more"?

[nodito]

How would you advise me? Intellectually, I know that I want to go to heaven and be holy. I know a lot about the Church’s teachings and try to follow all the rules and commandments. At the same time, I have difficulty making myself go “above and beyond” what is required of all Catholics. I go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. I abide by the Church’s teaching on sexual morality. But, for example, although I understand the purpose and value of the Lenten disciplines (extra prayers, fasting, almsgiving), I haven’t kept the few disciplines I committed to (no sweets, extra time for my preschool-aged son) because I’ve told myself it’s not a sin to set aside private Lenten devotions. I abstain from meat on Fridays but when I thought about also trying to fast on Fridays in Lent I didn’t make myself do it. I think it’s better to pray the rosary every day but since it’s not a sin if I don’t, I have trouble motivating myself to pray it. I fully realize there’s a discrepancy between what I say I want and what I want to do at the moment, but I’m not sure how to overcome it. How do you make yourself love God more? How do you motivate yourself to do more than required. Advice or prayers welcome.

 

[chataranga]

Greetings,
What I do is say a prayer each morning and each evening before bed. The prayer is “Allow me to decrease that you may increase” I pray this for a few minutes then think about how I can implement it or how I did implement it-Then I say Thank you. Blessings and take care.

 

[Julie_de_Sales]

I know how hard it is to do the “extras” when you know it’s not an obligation. But what REALLY helped me recently was to begin doing spiritual bouquets for my close family that I want to offer them on their birthday. It’s motivating and I want to pray more and do little acts of penance because I know that in this way I can help them become closer to God. So I don’t know if this would work for you too, but for me it’s an amazing change. And I note everyday what I did for their intention. So maybe you could give it a try

 

[SJacob7]

How would you advise me? Intellectually, I know that I want to go to heaven and be holy. I know a lot about the Church’s teachings and try to follow all the rules and commandments. At the same time, I have difficulty making myself go “above and beyond” what is required of all Catholics. I go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. I abide by the Church’s teaching on sexual morality. But, for example, although I understand the purpose and value of the Lenten disciplines (extra prayers, fasting, almsgiving), I haven’t kept the few disciplines I committed to (no sweets, extra time for my preschool-aged son) because I’ve told myself it’s not a sin to set aside private Lenten devotions. I abstain from meat on Fridays but when I thought about also trying to fast on Fridays in Lent I didn’t make myself do it. I think it’s better to pray the rosary every day but since it’s not a sin if I don’t, I have trouble motivating myself to pray it. I fully realize there’s a discrepancy between what I say I want and what I want to do at the moment, but I’m not sure how to overcome it. How do you make yourself love God more? How do you motivate yourself to do more than required. Advice or prayers welcome.

I understand where you are coming from. I would like to make a suggestion, in that ‘you’ won’t be able to ‘do’ more through ‘yourself’. But, if you let God work through ‘you’, you may be surprised on what He does! Don’t put so much emphasis on ‘you’. Pray to God that He will work through you. Let Him do His work and not ‘you’ do ‘yours’. Just my thoughts.

Blessings,
SJ

 

[GAHere]

Well we don’t really ‘do something’ as much as we just STOP doing.
Think about it, we really can’t make ourselves do stuff. Action requires motivation, but even that requires inspiration, right? And what is inspiration? The Spirit In us.

The key to moving our love and desire for Christ from our heads to our hearts is Surrender.

We need to empty ourselves so that Christ can fill us. When that happens, we become conduits, so to speak, for His love to others.

Check out the parish bulletins in your area to find one that offers the Hearts AFire Parish Program for the New Evangelization by Fr. Michael Gaitley. If it isn’t offered anywhere nearby, speak to the adult formation leader at your parish to ask about bringing it to your parish.

It’s a small group book/workbook/DVD series in four parts. Pretty much takes a full year to complete the full cycle but man, it’s REALLY worth it!

Other than that, search the forums here to find book recommendations that address the topic of listening to God speaking to your heart, or humility, surrendering. Reading up on the saints can do wonders.

Oh, and of course, begin with prayer, always. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to desire a deeper relationship with him. Ask him to show you how to empty yourself so that you can be filled with his gifts.