TIPS ON LIVING A CHRIST CENTERED HABITS

1)A good replacement practice I do to get rid of undesirable habits is to behold the Lamb.

When the Priest says " Behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world" that is a good time to behold him. Notice the tense says "takes", so it is an ongoing process.

Since 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that He, the Lamb, was made to be sin, who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So He takes away the sinful habits and replaces them with His own righteousness, perfections and virtues.

Practice this during Mass and you will be filled with joy unspeakable.

2)The Scripture says " This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” . (Mark 1:15 NABRE)

This is a good time for a change for the grace of replacement is here. How? Because "The kingdom of God is at hand" So it is easy for us to make changes. our habits should be based on our new life in Christ.

For after baptism, we are no longer subject to the elements that control human life for we are made new with a substance the same as Jesus, but different from that in ordinary human life. "We were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.(John 1:13)

We can simply do this through the Eucharist, word of God and devotion to our Lady at Lasalette

3)Our Lord Jesus in His prayer before He freely went into passion said "They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

(John 17:16‭-‬17 MEV)

Since we are not of this world, Romans 12:1 tells us not to conform to the habits of this world. So we renew our habits based on our new life. That is why the Bible tells us "If you then were raised with Christ, desire those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on earth.

(Colossians 3:1‭-‬2 MEV)

4)Identifying good habits can actually help to add replacement to the bad habits. Cultivating virtues like praying more often helps. Paragraph # 1803 of Our catechism of Catholic church says this about virtues:

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." [Phil 4:8]

A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. [1733, 1768]

5) meditation on the word of God and putting them into practice. Our Heavenly Father's dream is to conform us to the image of Jesus. Romans 8:29 NIV says "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."

Our Lord Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, and we are born of the Word of God. So we are consubstantial with Jesus. So as we meditate on the word, we are conformed to the very image of Jesus. That is why the Bible says " And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.(2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV)

6) The Lord said "“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

(Matthew 26:41 NIV) We are born of the Holy Spirit. "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit" (John 3:6 NIV)

However, we are living in a world full of flesh desires and dictates. Quiet time alone, especially in prayers and word meditation, helps us reconnect to our only source of holiness, Holy Spirit. This way, we are spiritually revitalized so as to navigate the world and its carnality.

7) Just as in epiclesis, that part in the liturgy of Eucharist, when the priest invokes the Holy Spirit and He descends and transforms our gift into the body and blood of Jesus. Though we are looking at bread and wine, we are consuming what we do not see, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.

The same way, after baptism, we are made new by the same Holy Spirit, all things are new, including our habits. ( 2 Cor 5:17) That is why the Scripture tells us since we are made new in Jesus, we should put on our new life. So, it is a synergy. The Holy Spirit transforms and we believe and walk in the newness of life.

8)

The Eucharist transforms us, if only God can open our spiritual eyes so we can see how we are transfigured after receiving the Eucharist. in our Credo, the first thing we proclaim is " I believe in God the Father Almighty" Almighty is the Hebrew word. " El shaddai" The Lord told Moses " I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them. (Exodus 6:3 NLT)

To make a change in habit is a synergy between our higher power " The Father Almighty" who transforms us and we allowing ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds through the scripture. That is why the Scripture tells us " Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.(Romans 12:2 NLT)

9) Isaiah 60:1 tells us to arise from any unhealthy habits, depression, anxiety, and prostration in which our earthly circumstances have kept us and shine in our newness of life. Why? Because our light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us.

In the Bible, Jesus saw a man by the pool of Bethesda who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years, knowing that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; ....” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”(John 5:5‭-‬8)

So let us arise and shine with awe, fear and trembling because it is the Spirit of our heavenly Father who is giving us the power both to arise and to shine (Philipians 2:12-13)

10)

We are the first fruits of God's new creation, who received the new life in Christ, so we can live a Christ centered habits, that is walk in the newness of life Romans 6:4 tells us that "we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life .

We cannot walk in the newness of life with our old life. This is where replacement comes in. That is why the Lord said. "“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”(Matthew 9:17)

We renew our minds through meditating on the word of God, devotion to Eucharist and our Blessed Mother, who speaks tenderly in our ears " do whatsoever jesus tells you to do" (John 2:5)

11) Eucharist is the beauty and the joy of our Catholic faith. In pharmacology, every drug we take has an active ingredient in it that works in the specific area of the body for specific purposes. The same way, the Eucharist is living and active for His purposes for us.

If you take a pill for headache, it works for headache only. But in ghe Eucharist, the active ingredient is the Spirit of Jesus. When you receive him in your heart, He lives in your heart actively and gives life to all parts of our lives . He cleanses us of any unhealthy habits, anxieties, depression and any disease.

The bible says "if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.(Romans 8:10‭-‬11 NIV)

Enjoy the Eucharist!

12)

Father Flavio, in his homily at the beginning of this liturgical year, told us about this verse “ the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”(Mark 1:15 NKJV)He gave us a better rendering, that is we actually repent because the kingdom of God, that is Christ is here.

Reflecting on Monday's gospel "No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.(Mark 3:27 NKJV)

So when we receive the Eucharist, we receive Jesus, who has bound the strongman, the devil, and rids us of any unholy habits he deposits in us.

13) One good thing about studying the Bible is that the word of God cleanses . The Lord said " You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you."

(John 15:3 NIV) The more word of God we get into our heart, the more we are cleansed of any unchristlike habits, anxieties, fear, sickness and depression.

No wonder the psalmist said "Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You." (Psalms 119:11 NKJV)

14)Through Fasting, we build self-discipline, The Scripture says "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7 NIV)

Self- discipline or self- control is needed to live Christ-centered habits.

Through self-discipline, we can "lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that is set before us,(Hebrews 12:1)

That is why St. Paul said "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."(I Corinthians 9:27 NKJV)

15) In the Scripture, "It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.(II Samuel 11:1 NKJV)

If David had gone to war as He normally does in the Spring, he could not have fallen into temptation and sinned against God. The Scripture tells us "A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.(Proverbs 25:28 NLT)

The world we are in is getting darker daily, let us see that we keep repeating those Christ centered habits Holy Spirit cultivated in us, just as going to morning mass everyday, praying rosary, word meditation. As Aristotle said "Nature abhors vacuum"

If we have to skip one virtue, let's have a replacement in place. In our Catholic Faith, we trade vice for virtues and not the other way round.

16) Our Lord Jesus told us "Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”(Matthew 26:41 NLT)

Fasting keeps us spiritually alert, collective and oriented, so we adhere to Christ centered habits.

The world is getting darker with so much violence. Remember, "You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

(1 Thessalonians 5:5‭-‬6 NIV)

So, we stay alert.

17) We are not ordinary, we are born not with the spirit of man, but the very Spirit of the Most High God. The Scripture says "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light". [Exod. 19:5, 6.](1 Peter 2:9 AMPC)

We cannot display what we don't have, we are heavily loaded with the virtues and perfections of our Heavenly Father. The Scripture says we have " love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

(Galatians 5:22‭-‬23 NKJV)

18) We have a masterplanner, great advocate, divine strategist, the Spirit of our heavenly Father Who helps us stack up more habits and cue more new behaviors than we can think or achieve with our human capabilities.

Through the Holy Spirit we are blessed with the gift of increase, in Hebrew " Rabah" (Genesis 1:28) So we can increase from grace to grace, strength to strength, as well in all virtues and excellence of God. Glory in the highest! Thank You Jesus! Yes!