Genesis 1 Resolutions
The First Story of Creation
- I will begin each day by speaking to God and asking for His guidance.
- I will begin each day by putting my day’s priorities in writing.
- I will speak a prayer of blessing upon my wife and children this week.
- I will share a Bible reading with my wife this week.
- I will end of each day by giving thanks for the “good” I have seen today.
- I will exercise dominion by scheduling physical exercise this week.
- I will exercise dominion by scheduling my prayer this week.
- I will take a full Sabbath day of rest.
Genesis 2 Resolutions
The Second Story of Creation
- I will pray a vocal blessing over each member of my household this week.
- I will discuss with my wife how we might increase the spiritual formation of our offspring.
- I will ask God in prayer how I might better “keep” or “protect” my home from any excessive or defective influences (substance abuse, phone/text interruptions during meals, internet excesses, pornography, television dependence, etc.).
- I will help my child to exercise dominion by including him/her in a new project or responsibility.
- I will breathe spiritual life into my children by praying with each of them vocally.
- I will better “cling” to my wife by writing her a letter or taking her on a date or surprising her with a gift.
Genesis 3:1-7 Resolutions
The Fall of Adam & Eve
- I will ask God in prayer how I might better “keep” or “protect” my home from any excessive or defective influences (substance abuse, media interruptions during meals, internet excesses, pornography, television dependence, etc).
- I will discuss with my wife any areas I might better defend her or our family from bad influences.
- I will ask my wife to read Scripture aloud with me on a regular basis.
- I will lead my whole family in a Bible reflection, where we all read and apply the Bible out loud (Psalm, Gospel passage, or other story).
- I will take my family to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
- I will enable parent controls and pornography filters on media devices in our home.
- I will fast one day for the healing, protection and freedom of my wife.
Genesis 3:8-24 Resolutions
The Consequence of Original Sin
- I will practice examination of conscience every night this week.
- I will confess my sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
- I will propose to my wife that we both go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
- I will take my whole family to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
- I will spend 15 minutes in Adoration asking God if there are any areas I am “hiding” from Him.
- I will acknowledge one failure to my wife and ask her forgiveness.
- I will choose one day to pray and fast for my wife’s battle against temptations.
- I will fast from complaining and blaming other people.
- I will ask God in prayer how I might better “keep” or “protect” my home from any evil influences (substance abuse, media interruptions during meals, internet excesses, pornography, television dependence, etc.).
- I will discuss with my wife any adjustments to make in the “punishment” and “provision” of our children.
Genesis 4 Resolutions
Cain & Abel
- I will read the Catechism on marital love and conception (#2360-2379).
- I will read the Catechism passage above and discuss it with my wife.
- I will pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary in thanksgiving for my children.
- I will take each of my children to Adoration during the week.
- I will share the lessons of Genesis 1-4 with my family.
- I will discuss with my wife a potential increase in our level of generosity to God.
- I will practice every day giving thanks to God for His gifts to people I resent.
- I will practice examination of conscience every night this week to increase my “dominion over sin.”
- I will choose a penance or sacrifice to overcome an area of temptation in my life.
Genesis 5-7 Resolutions
Noah and the flood
- I will bless my children this week.
- I will tell my children the story of the choice of their names.
- I will read the story of Noah’s Ark to my family.
- I will build or construct something with my son.
- I will share with my family how challenging it is to be Catholic in the workplace.
- I will ask my family what challenges they face being Catholic in today’s world.
- I will include children in the care of any animals we have.
- I will spend 30 minutes in Adoration asking God to speak to me, and then journaling whatever inspirations I experience.
- I will discuss with my wife any “emergency preparedness” we want to update for our home.
Genesis 8-9 Resolutions
The First Covenant
- I will discuss with my wife how we might “initiate” and “commission” each child as they come of age.
- I will designate or build a holy place (altar, shrine, grotto, prayer place) at home.
- I will schedule a Feast for friends to celebrate a Holy Day at our home.
- I will plan a Sunday Tailgate, and grill after Mass with other Catholics from my parish.
- I will renew my covenant with my wife by leading her in the renewal of our vows.
- I will examine and apologize for any evil I have spoken against family members.
- I will offer a vocal blessing with each member of my family.
Genesis 12 Resolutions
Abram Leaves Home
- I will consider in what area of life the Lord is prompting me to “GO,” and I will take a step in that direction.
- I will spend 15 minutes giving thanks for the ways God has already seen me through uncertainty in my past (choice of studies, engagement, marriage, child-rearing, job searches, crises, promotions, moves, etc.).
- I will begin to train one child in a step or skill that s/he hasn’t learned yet.
- I will attend adoration and ask God for blessing in the critical areas of my life.
- I will bestow vocal blessing upon my wife and upon my children.
- I will construct a sacred space in my house or yard.
- I will gather my family to pray a blessing and sprinkle holy water around the house.
- I will invest in my marriage by coming home on time every day with a readiness to serve and spoil my wife.
- I will plan a surprise date for my wife this week.
Genesis 13 Resolutions
Abram & Lot
- I will spend 15 minutes in Adoration giving thanks to God for the material resources that presently support my life.
- I will discuss with my wife the creation of a financial plan for our family.
- I will pray with my wife about the influence of wealth on our relationship.
- I will examine my family for any sources of strife, and I will seek counsel on taking one step to resolve that strife.
- I will consult my father and give him the opportunity to share wisdom about wealth and family.
- I will plan with my wife how to train our children in the acquisition and responsibility of wealth.
- I will schedule a “retreat day” for my wife and I to pray and examine the “bigger picture” of our marriage and our family.
- I will read and discuss a passage of the Bible with my family.
- I will lead a family Rosary in thanksgiving for our blessings.
- I will read the Catechism on prayer #2623-2649 (Blessing, Petition, Intercession, Thanksgiving, Praise).
- I will teach one of my children how to grow in personal prayer (perhaps in Petition, Intercession, Blessing, Thanksgiving, Praise).
Genesis 14-15 Resolutions
God's Covenant with Abram
- I will call a family member I have not spoken with for a long time.
- I will discuss with my wife how we can bless the Church with a greater offering of our money or time.
- I will invite our parish priest into our home for dinner.
- I will voice my greatest desires to God during adoration.
- I will reflect on my prayer and discern the times and ways in which God commonly speaks to me.
- I will give my time, my knowledge, or my financial support to help fight a cultural battle I consider important.
- I will work to mediate a long-standing familial dispute in light of the story of Abram and Lot.
Genesis 16 Resolutions
Abram & Hagar
- I will show my wife that I choose her each day by words and/or actions.
- I will read a chapter of one of the Gospels every day and ask the LORD to speak to me through the scripture.
- I will prioritize my time every morning this week to be attentive to my responsibilities and to combat apathy and passiveness.
- I will read the Catechism passages about the gift of children (CCC 2373-2379).
- I will address a familial dispute that has been ignored.
Genesis 17 Resolutions
The sign of the Covenant
- I will construct a chronology of significant spiritual events in my life, and recall how God was faithful in the “meantime” between those events.
- I will establish a rhythm of faithful daily prayer during the “meantime.”
- I will write a note to each of my children expressing my gratitude, pride, and hopes for their future fruitfulness.
- I will take 30 minutes in personal prayer to examine my fatherhood in light of my call to be a “fatherhood of a multitude of nations.”
- I will discuss with my wife ways we will make our faith “more visible.”
- I will promote laughter in my home by sharing a humorous story or joke each day.
- I will remind each of my children why we chose their names.
- I will plan with my wife the way we will address sexual maturity with our children.
- I will spend time in prayer asking God’s desires (instead of mine) for each child.
- I will spend time in prayer asking how God wants to make me “exceedingly fruitful.”
Genesis 18 Resolutions
Abraham & the Three Visitors
- I will be generous to God by the offering of a prayer with a lighted candle at Church.
- I will propose to my wife the hosting of a family from work for a meal at our house.
- I will provide hospitality and material relief for beggars: bags of snacks or gift cards for food.
- I will schedule a time to meet with my wife to hear her truth, and to express my truth, about our faith, our marriage, and our family.
- I will explain the 10 commandments to my children.
- I will read the Precepts of the Church (Catechism #2041-2043) to my family.
- I will include my children in accomplishing a corporal or spiritual work of mercy.
- I will attend Mass or pray a rosary each day this week in intercession for family members who are far from God.
- I will arrange with a parish for a Mass to be offered for the intention of a family member in need of God’s help.
Genesis 19 Resolutions
Lot & The angels of the lord
- I will invite a coworker into our home for dinner and community.
- I will invite our parish priest into our home for dinner and community.
- I will invite another family from my parish into our home for dinner, community, and games.
- I will take my family out of the city to an area where we can experience God’s beauty in nature and in solitude, silence, and peace (hiking, biking, camping, picnic, etc.).
- I will plan to spend time with my son-in-law or daughter-in-law to invest in that relationship.
- I will call my father-in-law to invest in that relationship.
- I will meet with another member(s) of my Patriarch group outside of our regularly scheduled meeting time to foster our alliance(s).
- I will pray a Rosary each day this week interceding for freedom and protection from sexual immorality for my family and myself.
- I will plan with my wife how we will educate our children in sexual morality.
Genesis 20 Resolutions
Abraham & Abimilech
- I will surprise my wife with a small gift or a note expressing my love for her every day this week.
- I will spend 20 minutes reflecting on how and when God has spoken to me and I will give thanks for those times.
- I will pray a Rosary or a Divine Mercy Chaplet every day this week in intercession for a family member.
- I will attend mass each day this week in intercession for someone who has hurt me.
- I will reach out to heal any relationships in my life where dishonesty has caused conflict.
- I will proclaim the word of God to a family member, friend or coworker.
- I will read a Bible Story to my children each night this week.
Genesis 21 Resolutions
The Birth of Isaac & Exile of IShmael
- I will spend 30 minutes in adoration recalling the blessings where God has actively worked in my life and I will give thanks for them.
- I will schedule one-on-one time with each of my children to be attentive to their needs, desires, joys, and sorrows.
- I will pray a Rosary in intercession for each of my children this week.
- I will strengthen a relationship with a member of my group by meeting outside of our scheduled Patriarch meeting for prayer and conversation.
- I will tell a joke or a funny story from my day to my wife each evening.
- I will ask my wife’s advice concerning any obstacles I am facing at work.
- I will teach my family how to pray the Angelus.
Genesis 22 Resolutions
The Sacrifice of Isaac
- I will give my children more responsibility in the house to train them in work and obedience.
- I will show special affection to each of my children this week.
- I will speak to a priest to offer a mass for my family.
- I will spend time in adoration asking the Lord if I am withholding anything from him.
- I will read Luke 18:18-30 and reflect on how that story relates to Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, and how it relates to my own life.
- I will ask my wife if she has observed any attachments in my life that may be an idol distracting me from God.
- I will speak with my children about placing trust in God.
- I will give my children money to place in the offertory basket at mass to teach them how to tithe.
Genesis 23 Resolutions
The Death of Sarah
- I will set aside a time to meet with my wife to discuss strategies to better accomplish our long-term financial goals.
- I will develop a plan/timeline for asking my boss for a promotion.
- I will have my children help me fix up part of our home that has been neglected.
- I will play monopoly with my family and use it to teach my children about real estate and financial planning.
- I will spend time in adoration requesting that the Lord provide for a financial need in my family.
- I will pray a rosary for the deceased members of my family.
- I will spend at least 15 minutes reflecting on the loved ones that I have lost and the ways in which they helped me.
Genesis 24 Resolutions
A wife for isaac
- I will have a conversation with my children about important priorities to look for in a future spouse.
- I will offer one form of penance every day this week for my children’s future spouse to grow in holiness.
- I will bless my children by treating them to something special.
- I will speak with someone I care about who is in a relationship that is leading him/her away from Christ.
- I will take my daughter shopping. On the drive we will talk about why modesty is important.
- I will pray a rosary with my family and offer up the intention for my children’s vocations.
- I will choose one day this weekend for our family to put away all technology and do something together as a family.
Genesis 25 Resolutions
Jacob & Esau
- I will ask my wife what she needs prayer for and will then pray aloud with her for her intentions and my desires for her.
- Each day this week, I will pray “over” my wife while she sleeps, for any healing I am aware that she needs.
- I will discuss openly with my wife any perceived preferences she and I tend to make with our children.
- I will ask God daily for grace to “increase my desire and preference” for a child who is proving difficult in this season.
- I will praise one good characteristic of each of my children in front of the family.
- I will mediate reconciliation in a long-term conflict between my children.
- I will create an opportunity for my children to do something together apart from their parents (e.g. yard games, board games, skiing, etc.).
- I will spend time interceding for a couple struggling with infertility.
- I will establish or update any end-of-life documents: Living Will, Medical Power or Attorney, Life Insurance, Last Will and Testament, etc.
Genesis 26 Resolutions
The Journeys of Isaac
- I will spend time in adoration giving thanks to God for the blessings, gifts, lessons and strengths I have inherited from my father.
- I will ask the lord to enlighten me about any blind spots, temptations, or sins I have inherited from my father, and for any wisdom on how to compensate for them.
- I will praise my wife three times in public this week.
- I will show more physical affection for my wife in front of my children this week.
- I will bring to confession any “cowardice” in my life, by examining where I dwell on fear, or permit fear to prevent me from initiating, from representing truth, from advocating for myself, or from leading my family.
- I will examine an area of my life where I am tempted to “quit,” and ask God for grace to know His desire and plan for this area of my life.
- I will propose a bonding activity with another Patriarch that will foster fellowship and recreation together.
- I will propose “making a feast” in our home for another family.
- I will teach an older child about the value of my own “spiritual well” and share with them how I pray, and invite them to accompany me in prayer.
- I will renew the blessing of my own “land” and “home” with a prayerful tour through the house and sprinkling with holy water.
- I will tour my home and yard, writing down a list of ways to better exercise dominion over “my land”.
Genesis 27 Resolutions
Taking the Blessing
- I will schedule a time to visit and to share a meal between just my father and I.
- I will schedule a conversation with my wife to discuss the legitimate and complementary differences between a father’s and a mother’s relationship with children.
- I will speak with my wife about any preferential treatment I observe in relation to our children.
- I will propose and supervise a long-term project that requires a child to initiate, plan, create, and produce something on his/her own for the benefit of the family.
- I will initiate an activity to build teamwork between my sons.
- I will regularly pray a prayer of blessing over each of my children.
- I will seek to reconcile with my sibling I believe has deceived, betrayed, or abandoned me.
- I will invite my sibling/s over for a scheduled meal.
- I will ask Jesus for the grace to forgive someone who has deceived me, and declare in prayer, “In Jesus’ name, I forgive __ for _.”
- I will pray and fast from something this week for the grace of peace between my children.
Genesis 28 Resolutions
God's Promise to Jacob
- I will spend time with my wife evaluating our children’s relationships with each other and identifying any areas that we should intervene or that we should back-way in order to help them grow closer together.
- I will pray a rosary with my wife for our children’s future spouses.
- I will encourage my wife to speak with our son(s) about important qualities to look for in a future wife.
- I will pray a vocal prayer of blessing over my children tonight.
- I will spend time in adoration this week asking God to bless my family.
- I will write a letter of prayer and encouragement for each of my children to be opened on the day they receive their next sacrament for the first time.
- I will construct or purchase something sacred for my home or for my family members individually.
- I will explain to my children who have a job or earn an allowance how our family tithes and will encourage them to do the same.
Genesis 29 Resolutions
Rachel & Leah
- I will do something extraordinary to demonstrate my love for my wife.
- I will establish a period of time (1 week, 1 month, etc.) and will commit to showing love to my wife in a specific way during each day of that period.
- I will offer forgiveness to a family member who has deceived me.
- I will ask for forgiveness from a family member who I have deceived.
- I will examine my conscience each night this week, specifically focusing on ways that I may have deceived someone in small or large matters.
- I will confront an emotional relationship I have with a woman other than my wife and seek to guard against it.
- I will examine the steps my family has taken to guard against access to pornography coming into our home.
- I will go to adoration and reflect on how I treat my children and will correct any areas where I show unfair preference toward one or more children.
- I will pray a novena with my family for someone we know struggling to conceive a child.
- I will ask the Lord for spiritual fruitfulness for my family.
Genesis 30 Resolutions
Profiting From Laban
- I will have a conversation with my wife about whether she desires to have more children.
- I will schedule an appointment with a Catholic doctor to discuss fertility struggles that my wife and I are having.
- I will offer up a fast for someone I know struggling with infertility.
- I will read and discuss the section The Gift of a Child from the Catechism (par. 2373-2379) with my older children.
- I will write down a list of ways that I can bless my employer in order to increase the success of my company.
- I will update my resumé and establish goals to accomplish in an areas that my resumé is weak.
- I will have a conversation with a good friend about potential employment opportunities in his field.
- I will evaluate and re-establish any long-term financial goals for my family.
Genesis 31 Resolutions
Jacob vs. Laban
- I will establish/re-examine transparency and accountability practices in my office and/or home.
- I will show favor to one of my children that I find it difficult to show favor to.
- I will go to prayer asking the Lord to reveal to me ways in which I value favor with my boss ahead of honesty and integrity.
- I will teach my children about saving and investments.
- I will schedule a meeting with a financial planner to discern how to best use my resources to provide for my family’s financial stability.
- I will confront a situation where I have been wronged.
- I will commit to patience in a situation where I have been wronged and establish a goal for confronting it at an appropriate time.
- I will set a goal to form an alliance with a co-worker/business partner that I have been avoiding due to pride.
Genesis 32 Resolutions
Jacob vs. The Lord
- I will take an account of the gifts God has blessed me with since I finished college or started a family and share that account with my children.
- I will begin the process of reconciliation with a family member whom I have been alienated from.
- I will discuss with my wife how we can share our material blessings with a family member who is in need.
- I will give an important gift to someone close to me this week.
- I will go to prayer by myself this week and discuss a goal that I have with the Lord. Following prayer, I will write down a strategy for achieving that goal.
- I will fast for a particular intention this week.
- I will read about the lives of the saints and find a saint that shares similar personality traits with my children individually. I will then share these stories with my children and explain how each saint related to the Lord.
- I will share one lesson I have learned from the story of Jacob with my family at dinner this week.
Genesis 33 Resolutions
Esau Surprises Jacob
- I will take time to enjoy the company of my siblings the next time I seem them instead of rushing off.
- I will personally apologize to someone I have wronged.
- I will confess my sins in the sacrament of reconciliation.
- I will acknowledge one of my failures to one of my children and ask for forgiveness.
- I will forgive someone who I have been withholding forgiveness from.
- I will take a step to prepare for my children’s future.
- I will share the story of Esau with my children at dinner one night this week and will explain something I have learned from his example.
- I will designate or build a holy place (altar, shrine, grotto, prayer place) at home.
Genesis 34 Resolutions
Jacob's Daughter, Dinah
- I will read Pope St. John Paul II’s letter on The Dignity and Vocation of Women and share a lesson from it with my daughter.
- I will ask my wife to read Pope St. John Paul II’s Letter to Women with me.
- I will discuss with my wife a plan for when/how to teach our children lessons on chastity.
- I will ask my wife to discuss with our daughter how to be safe and alert when travelling by herself.
- I will take my daughter on a date and model for her how she deserves to be treated by men.
- I will review the measures my family takes to guard our children against influences of lust.
- I will train my children in freedom
- I will speak with my son about his duty to guard his sister and to treat all women with respect.
- I will repent of a time I have deceived someone for profit by returning the profit and apologizing.
Genesis 35 Resolutions
The Deaths of Rachel & Isaac
- I will schedule a pilgrimage for my family to travel to a place where I encountered the Lord in my younger days and will use it to communicate to my children the story of God encountering me.
- I will invite my wife to “put away the foreign gods” in our lives by leading her in an examination of conscience and resolving to remove any obstacles we find that keep us from God.
- I will take my children to visit the graves of their relatives and relate stories of them.
- I will contact my parish to offer a mass for the souls of my deceased relatives.
- With my children, I will create a photo album or devote a space on our wall in our home to pictures of our family tree. I will use it as a time to commemorate our relatives by telling my children stories about our family.
- I will discuss with my siblings how the transition will be handled pertaining to the passing of one of our parents.
Genesis 37 Resolutions
The dreams and Betrayal of Joseph
- I will ask my wife if there are ways I contribute to the discord in my family.
- I will spend 15 minutes reflecting on the discord in my family as I grew up. I will share my reflections with my wife and discuss ways to prevent that discord from being repeated in our family.
- I will model healthy sibling relationship to my children by repairing a damaged relationship I have with one of my siblings.
- I will encourage my children to share their dreams with me by first sharing some of my dreams with them.
- I will spend 30 minutes in prayer asking the Lord what His mission is for me. I will journal what I hear being spoken to my heart.
- I will create a specific mission for my children to go on. I will make it appropriate to their age and will discuss the details of such a mission with other fathers beforehand.
- I will go to the chapel and examine the areas of my life that I am deceitful or dishonest (lying on taxes, “white-lies” to my spouse, etc.) and will repent and resolve to demonstrate my repentance in front of my children.
- I will speak to a priest or counselor about my depression.
- I will encourage someone I know who is depressed to speak with a priest or counselor.
Genesis 38 Resolutions
Judah & Tamar
- I will discuss with my wife how we could appropriately provide for our sibling’s spouse and children in the event that one of our siblings passes away.
- I will read Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae with my wife so that I can be better prepared to explain the Church’s teaching on contraception.
- I will encourage and invest in an intellectual or artistic pursuit that my daughter has shown interest in.
- I will discuss with my wife how we can tithe to an organization that works to rescue women who are being sexually exploited (i.e. Catholic Charities Dignity House in Arizona, etc.)
- I will discuss with my age-appropriate children how the demand for pornography contributes to sexual exploitation and sex-trafficking (www.fightthenewdrug.org)
- I will research a story of a person who came from a situation involving adultery, rape, or poverty, and I will share the story with my family to teach my children about the value of all human life.
Genesis 39 Resolutions
Joseph & Potiphar's Wife
- I will go to adoration and write down the areas that I believe the Lord has helped me to prosper in.
- I will schedule a renewal of vows ceremony with my wife.
- I will exercise dominion over my desire for power/success by relinquishing control of a project to someone who can be trusted with it. I will avoid taking credit for their success.
- I will end or distance a relationship with a female friend/co-worker that I feel has become too intimate.
- I will speak to a co-worker or someone I volunteer in a ministry with about the importance of always ensuring that there are three people present when we are in a potentially compromising situation.
- I will teach my children practical steps to avoid being left alone in a potentially dangerous situation.
- I will communicate the truth in a situation where someone is being deceitful, even if it will negatively affect me.
- I will offer up a fast this week for someone who has treated me unjustly.
Genesis 40 Resolutions
Joseph Interprets the Prisoners' Dreams
- I will focus this week on developing one good habit and consistently incorporating it into my routine (i.e. punctuality, orderliness, dominion over my schedule, promptness in replying to email/voicemail, etc.)
- I will model to my children how to grow in knowledge by asking them questions about things I do not understand.
- I will develop a plan to cultivate relationships of trust with my boss and co-workers by offering additional help outside of my job description.
- I will anticipate a future need that my company will have and prepare a solution in advance to promptly present to my boss once the need is present.
- I will identify a deficiency in my employment education and/or experience and find a solution to fill that gap.
- I will bring to confession any “cowardice” in my life, by examining where I have avoided speaking the truth to co-workers or family members out of fear.
- I will schedule a “retreat day” for my wife and I to pray and examine the “bigger picture” of our marriage and our family.
Genesis 41 Resolutions
Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dream
- I will make an adjustment to how I “carry” myself at work, either in my appearance or manner of speech.
- I will journal a list of my talents and accomplishments and review how they can be of help to my employer.
- I will make my faith more visible in my office by placing a crucifix or other religious object in my personal workspace.
- I will set myself up for success by proposing a solution to a problem at my job and offering to provide the work.
- I will make a list of ways I can do more than is asked of me by my boss this week.
- I will discuss with my wife practical ways that we can better prepare ourselves for financial times of “famine”.
- My wife and I will review or create our family’s retirement portfolio with a financial advisor to exercise dominion over planning for future needs.
- At dinner on Sunday night, I will talk with my children about trying to be faithful to God in difficult situations in their upcoming week. At dinner on Friday night, we will review ways in which we were faithful in difficult situations that week and I will come up with a reward for their faithfulness.
Genesis 42 Resolutions
Joseph Profits israel
- I will recount spiritual or psychological wounds from my past that I have not dealt with and will bring them to a priest or counselor for advice on how to deal with them.
- I will offer up a fast or go to mass with week praying for the intention for the Lord to reveal areas of my wife’s life that are in need of healing.
- I will write a letter of apology to someone I have wounded.
- I will discuss & re-assess with my wife the methods of punishment we use in our home.
- I will make an extra sacrifice this week for a family member who is in need.
- I will reach out to a sibling who is in need, but is too prideful to ask for help.
- I will discuss with my wife how we can anonymously help a charity or organization that is in great need.
- I will teach my children about anonymously giving by reading and explaining to them Matthew 6:1-3.
Genesis 43 Resolutions
Joseph Shows favor
- I will demonstrate trust in my older children by allowing them to take their younger siblings somewhere by themselves that is appropriate to their age.
- I will send my children on a mission together giving them a goal to accomplish that requires them to work together.
- I will speak with my wife about giving the Lord more than He asks from us by increasing our tithing to 11%-15% instead of 10%.
- I will win the favor of my boss by doing more than is expected of me on a current project.
- I will go out to eat with a close male friend and will intentionally share conversation that is deep and personal.
- I will show favor to my children individually on a special feast of one of their patron saints (their name, their confirmation saint, etc.). We will celebrate as a family by going out as a family for ice cream and letting the child who’s feast we are celebrating choose the location.
- I will schedule a feast for my family on the day of a patron saint in our family and will plan something special for my family that day that includes food and games. I will ask each capable member of my family to prepare something for the feast.
Genesis 44-45 Resolutions
Joseph's Conspiracy
- I will ask my older children to think of how they can offer to “take the place” of one of their younger siblings when they need help.
- I will thank one of my siblings for a time that they defended me or supported me when I greatly needed it.
- I will go to Adoration and prayerfully re-examine wounds and trials in my life to see if the Lord has used those situations for a greater purpose. I will share what I discover with my wife.
- I will ask my children to tell the family at dinner about a time when they experienced something difficult, but something greater came from it.
- I will share a story of overcoming adversity in my own life with my family.
- I will pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary in thanksgiving for a particular suffering I am currently experiencing.
- I will speak with my wife about scheduling a trip to see a family member we have not seen for a very long time.
Genesis 46 Resolutions
Israel Moves to Egypt
- I will begin to research & record my ancestry as far back as I can so that my children will know their heritage.
- I will ask my wife to join me in re-assessing priorities regarding the education of our children, proximity to family/community, quality of life, etc.
- I will tell my children about a time when I had to move and how the Lord blessed me despite the challenges.
- I will schedule a time or a trip to reunite/reconnect with my father.
- I will read the Catechism on immigration (#2241) and discuss the topic of immigration with my family.
- I will schedule time to watch a movie with my family that involves an epic and uncertain journey.
- I will take my family on a journey in the wilderness.
Genesis 47 Resolutions
Joseph Profits Pharaoh
- I will establish professional goals and create a timeline for accomplishing them.
- I will read Genesis 47:13-15 to my children and have a conversation with them about what the Egyptians and Canaanites could have done avoid running out of food and money.
- I will meet with my wife to discuss the state of our “emergency fund” and establish goals to provide for our family in case of emergency.
- I will create an evaluation for the people who work under me to help them clarify their goals and ask how I can better assist them.
- I will ask my boss how I can better assist in accomplishing his/her goals.
- I will examine the ways in which I exercise authority over my children and employees, paying particular attention to practices I observed as a child or employee that I felt were unnecessary or ineffective.
- I will lead a family rosary in thanksgiving for our blessings.
- I will increase my older children’s responsibility in the home and also increase their allowance.
- I will teach my children about tithing and saving by bringing them to the bank and opening an account that will allow them to set aside money for savings and for tithing.
Genesis 48 Resolutions
Jacob Blesses His Grandsons
- I will discuss with my parents and my siblings any unresolved end-of-life issues (e.g. – How we will care for them if they are unable to care for themselves, burial locations, desires for funeral mass, etc.).
- I will schedule times for my children to more regularly see their grandparents.
- I will invite a parent who has fallen away from the Church to attend Mass with my family.
- I will assess with my wife any needs that our parents might have and discuss how we can help provide for those needs.
- I will write down stories that I can remember about my grandparents and share those stories with my children.
- I will teach my children about caring for the elderly by bringing my family to volunteer in a nursing home.
- I will contact my parish to offer a mass for my deceased parent(s) or grandparent(s).
Genesis 49-50 Resolutions
The Last Days of the patriarchs
- I will take my children to visit the graves of their deceased relatives.
- I will discuss with my wife where we would like to be buried and will update my will to include these wishes.
- I will purchase a cemetery plot and create an account to pay for the burial costs for my wife and I.
- I will update my living will and will make arrangements for my funeral mass.
- I will schedule a feast on All-Souls day with my siblings. We will celebrate the feast by bringing pictures of deceased relatives and sharing stories about them.
- I will examine any areas of my relationship with my siblings that I need to facilitate forgiveness.
- I will discuss with my wife who we would prefer to care for our children if we were to both pass away. I will speak with a lawyer and update my living-will to reflect our decision.
- I will write a letter to my children to give them consolation following my death. I will leave instructions for the letter to be opened after my death.
