JMJ
I truly appreciate this formula from Thomas Menzel through his app RoutineFlow and his accompanying procrastination guide. He explains in detail how “our momentum is a direct result of our perceived likelihood of success and our perceived value of the success tempered by our actual impulsiveness and delays often in the forms of distraction and procrastination.”
The following is a redefinition of each variable in the formula in the interest of encouraging greater spiritual momentum.
Likelihood of Success = Faith in God: belief that he will heal us, that he is with us and for us, that he isn’t holding out on us, that he truly is the way, the truth, and the life
Value = Devotion to God: sincere recognition and gratitude for his great blessings in our lives, deep recognition of our need for reconciliation with his holy will
Impulsiveness = falling short in surrendering to God’s holy will: our own self-destructive self-will, falling short in producing in ourselves a genuine willingness and active desire to pursue his holy will, falling short in recognizing that only through truly surrendering our will to his do we receive the joy we had hoped to attain through our narrow-minded ideas
Delay = falling short in recognizing our urgent need for God’s sanctifying grace, falling short in recognizing that our final judgment could come at any moment and often when we least expect it, falling short in recognizing his primacy in every fraction of our existence and every blessing we receive throughout our lives, and that without him in any aspect of our experience, that aspect is rendered shallow, hollowed out, diminished, rotten, and fully dead
I may improve this explanation someday, and possibly tweak the structure of the formula, but more importantly is that we recognize the primacy of the Holy Spirit in our spiritual momentum.
In that spirit, a quick prayer offered to me early in my return to Christ’s Catholic Church:
Act of Consecration to the Holy Spirit
On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, soul and body, to you, Eternal Spirit of God.
I adore the brightness of your purity, the unerring keenness of your justice, and the might of your love.
You are the strength and light of my soul. in you i live and move and am.
I desire never to grieve you by unfaithfulness to grace, and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against you.
Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for your light and listen to your voice and follow your gracious inspirations.
I cling to you and give myself to you and ask you by your compassion to watch over me in my weakness.
Holding the pierced feet of Jesus and looking at his five wounds and trusting in his precious blood and adoring his opened side and stricken heart, I implore you Adorable Spirit, Helper of My Infirmity, so to keep me in your grace that I may never sin against you.
Give me grace o Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Father and the Son, to say to you always and everywhere, “Speak Lord, for your servant heareth.”
Amen.
Saunter 