What's the best way to live your Catholic life

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whichwaytogo47

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What’s the way to be an ideal Catholic? You can serve in the church. But what’s the best way to make sure you have a deep intimate relationship with Jesus?

I’m thinking of the following attributes:
#1 You love God, love neighbor, attend mass at least weekly, and go to confession for all your mortal sins as soon as you can

#2 You have a charitable heart and give to others cheerfully and anonymously.
#3 You pray 5-15 minutes every day (ideally 1+ hour)
#4 You go to daily mass
#5 You study your Bible
#6 The Holy Spirit guides you to do good works
#7 You bring others to heaven by sharing your faith
#8 You always have a repentant heart
#9 You visit the sick
#10 You speak well about others
#11 You avoid gossip
#12 You avoid judging people but have a love for others to help them stray from sin
#13 You resist temptation to do evil or wrong, like stealing or adultery or thoughts of such
#14 You ask the Holy Spirit to help you overcome addictions and faith failures
#15 You don’t take the spiritual gifts God gave you by the Holy Spirit for granted.
#16 You’re slow to anger, thoughtful to speak - work on being impulsive or quick tempered
#17 You’re honest about your faith walk and your shortcomings
#18 You don’t lie about other people or unnecessarily share their faults with others.
#19 Having compassion for people you meet, including loving your enemies
#20 Forgiving people for their transgressions
 
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Commendable, if lofty, goals! Frankly, I am thankful for the Sacrament of reconciliation.
 
I think it depends on each person, their personality & vocation. I don’t pray the amount you listed everyday. But I offer my day’s work to God and often that’s my main prayer. Monks would be remiss for only doing that, though - they have signed up to pray a whole lot more. I think the “best way” is often teased out over a lifetime by each individual soul as they work within the broad parameters of honoring their baptism vows, 10 Commandments, precepts of the Church, marriage vows (if applicable), religious vows & Rule (if applicable), etc. But the details of how those things look seem hard to pin down much more specifically.
 
The Lord has shown and told us…

The Greatest Commandment

[Matthew 22:34-40]

One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together. Knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the greatest of all?” Jesus answered, "The greatest is, ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.

The second is like this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to him, “Truly, teacher, you have said well that he is one, and there is none other but he, and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” No one dared ask him any question after that.
 
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What’s The Best Way To Live Your Catholic Life?

Live a Life of Heroic Virtue.
 
@whichwaytogo47, sounds like you’re already know how to have a deep intimate relationship with Jesus. To have an ideal life, be an ideal Catholic… I guess depends on what you consider is ideal.

If you are straggling with something specific you can talk with your priest… but I think your mind set is already in the right place to open yourself to a strong reationship with God. Just let your prayers and The Holy Spirit continue to guide you.
 
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po18guy said:
Commendable, if lofty, goals! Frankly, I am thankful for the Sacrament of reconciliation.
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Definitely. Jesus suffered and died for us and God poured out his blessing on the church.
 
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annad347 said:
@whichwaytogo47, sounds like you’re already know how to have a deep intimate relationship with Jesus . To have an ideal life, be an ideal Catholic… I guess depends on what you consider is ideal.

If you are straggling with something specific you can talk with your priest… but I think your mind set is already in the right place to open yourself to a strong reationship with God. Just let your prayers and The Holy Spirit continue to guide you.
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I think I suffer from distraction and I could definitely have a deeper, more reverent prayer life.
 
I know at the Catholic church I go to have group prayers of the Rosary each morning before mass… maybe your church has that, maybe you can join and it’ll help with distractions.

Or maybe you like to talk which is what prayers is… and as you talk your mind starts to wonder to many thing you want to talk to God about… theres nothing wrong with that.

But if your getting distracted by things thats taking you away from your prayers maybe its time and loction you need to fix. Make a prayer room or closet with no outside distractions.

As for being resectful, unless your cursing God , which I totaly doubt you are… Im positive youre being reverant… but it might help to get a prayer book and just recite some prayers for what you’re trying to say, until you feel more comfortable using your own words… even though I think God just loves to hear you talk 🙂
 
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Through the Catholic Church…the Sacraments Jesus instituted for us, especially the Eucharist, and His teachings (‘if you love me you will obey my commandments’)
 
Attend mass, receive the Eucharist, go to confession. Receive the sacraments for your state in life. Raise your children to be Catholic and lead by example.

With the exception of the first thing on your list, there is nothing there that is specifically Catholic. The list applies to anyone striving to live a Christian, though perhaps not Catholic life.
 
As other posters have said or insinuated, it all comes down to Love. True Love conquers all!
 
Fr. Flaviano Amatulli’s Five Flags of the Faithful Catholic

(paraphrased from his talks)

#1. The Primacy of the Word of God.

The Bible must hold a sacred place above all books, above all documents, above all writings. It’s not enough to simply own a Bible for reference, one must become familiar with the Bible—not from a scientific, scholarly perspective, such as studying literary genres and the history of the Bible—but reading the Bible as our guide on how we are to act, how we are to speak, how we are to think, how we are to work, how we are to treat others, how we are to love, how we are to forgive, how we are to evangelize; how we are to imitate Christ. -It is God’s letter to us.

#2. Christ at the Center of our Life

Above all spiritual devotions, Jesus Christ must be the Lord of our Life. Christ is our role model, our savior, our king, our God. Thus the Holy Eucharist is the Source and Summit if the Christian life. Devotions to saints is all well and good, but Jesus Christ must be the center of our life. The saints are examples of people who made Jesus Christ the center of their lives. Allow Christ to transform our hearts and minds. If we are the same gossiper, the same nasty person, the same heart filled with resentments and unforgiveness, the same person with the same vices that we were 6 months ago, it means we aren’t making spiritual progress.

Praying the Holy Rosary meditating on the mysteries is a Christocentric devotion as it is a meditation on the life of Christ. A pattern that we must follow and imitate in our own life. It is about becoming small, and simple; about killing the old self so as to have a new self, that is, Christ gives us Himself. We put on Christ. Death to the old self.

#3. An experience with God Our Father

As Christians it is necessary to come into an encounter, an experience with God our Father. That despite hardship and trials, we have a Father in heaven who knows everything and has a Plan; He will take care of us. While the storms rage at the surface of the sea, tranquility reigns down deep. Be serene, knowing that Our Father is God. It is a sad thing to be active with all kinds of apostolates without having an encounter with God our Father, our reason for being.

#4. Maturing within the community

Our life as a Catholic must mature within our community. Conversing, supporting, helping one another, knowing the people we encounter. Our Christian life must not be isolated from the community—it must be within the community, beginning within the family. We pray to God as Our Father—not “my” Father.

#5. The Spirit of the Mission

Catholics are called to be missionaries. Soldiers of Christ with our face toward the mission of sharing the riches of Grace and Truth which we received from God in order to share it with those who lack it. The mission is the salvation of souls. We are the laborers, we plant the seeds, it is the Holy Spirit Who makes the seed grow, it is the Holy Spirit who converts a hardened heart. The seed is the Word of God. We are called to be instruments of God’s grace, the light of Christ in this dark world.
 
Here’s a brief talk by Archbishop Fulton Sheen about the role of the Catholic laity in the world: AUDIO
 
I think going to Adoration every chance you get should be on that list.
 
I think what has the biggest impact on the world is doing a morning offering of your day. Unite with Christ all of the struggles and trials of the day for the conversion of sinners.

If you cannot pray the rosary, unite yourself with our Blessed Mother, taking one rosary mystery in the morning to honor and come back to through the day.
 
Love God.
Love others as self.

A prayerful, devoted life and readiness to help others will follow naturally from the love of God and neighbor.

Simple, but not easy.
 
It’s the simple things that get me. They’re very easy to overlook.
 
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