| Jan. 2020, Week 1: Faith Life by Soren and Ever Johnson Happy New Year! Everyone loves a fresh start, right? With the 2020s upon us, we can’t help but experience a sense of hope and anticipation. We have been given not only a new year, but also a new decade to live together with God, making our home a little taste of heaven. Throughout 2020, the Heaven in Your Home Letters will equip you, season by season and level by level, in the process of building a Trinity House. We’ll also share news about what’s going on with the Trinity House Community. We’re so glad you’ll be joining us on the journey! In the first week of every month, we’ll delve into Level One: Faith Life, helping you focus in on securing the foundation of heaven in your home. In weeks two through five, we’ll show how your family can build out each successive level of your Trinity House. For a refresher on the levels of the Trinity House, check out our blueprint page. It’s January, and here in the DC area, we’re awaiting our first snowstorm of the year. The flakes are set to start falling in just a couple of hours. Cold and snow bring a hushed stillness, a natural backdrop for contemplation. Building on last month’s Advent theme of the Incarnation in our homes, instead of rushing to decide our new year’s plans, let’s devote some time to admiring the Divine Child in our midst. It’s the first week of the month – how should we focus our family’s faith life, taking contemplation of God in our midst into the foundation of our home and family? As we contemplate the Christ Child who is the center of our family’s life, we can deepen our gratitude for the fact that God came to dwell with us. We can also lay aside our worldly aspirations to discover His will for us in 2020. As you may remember from our Heaven In Your Home Workshop, keeping Sunday holy is the essential starting point for Level One. But the reality is that, for so many of us, the day is riddled with errands and non-essential work. Our experience as a couple and as a family has convinced us that there’s no better way to enshrine contemplation of God at the heart of our homes than by setting aside the Sabbath as it was truly meant to be. Keeping the Sabbath holy is the beginning of contemplation. Allowing God’s rest to permeate our lives for an entire day, once a week, is the gateway to, as Mother Teresa said, becoming “contemplatives in the heart of the world.” Do you want you and your family’s every day to be infused with the joy of life’s deepest meaning? A holy Sabbath is the key. In Sabbath rest, we can deeply experience how the Lord is always providing for us. With this weekly reminder that reestablishes peace and priorities, we will be able to enjoy life and love Him and each other. As we work throughout 2020 to live together with God, making our homes into a little taste of heaven will flow from the Sabbath’s weekly gift. So, here’s a fitting resolution for 2020: make Sunday special. By spending quality time with God and your loved ones, just enjoying life and who you are together, you will be able to remember the meaning of your life – to love – when you’re working so hard for it every other day of the week. After all, as we say in our Trinity House, “Sunday done right is heaven on earth!” Heaven In Your Home Toolkit If you’re looking for an inspiring back-to-basics look at the Sabbath, check out Pope Saint John Paul II’s “The Lord’s Day.” In a New Year’s reflection on the “God-Bearing Life” in the Arlington Catholic Herald, Soren questions our “self-justification projects” and points to Mary’s “one resolution”: “Be it done unto me according to thy will.” If you don’t already begin each day in prayer with the daily readings, consider subscribing to Magnificat or to a free service such as the USCCB’s daily readings (sent via email). Don’t Miss… Heaven In Your Home Workshops: Are you ready to lead your family to a new level of faith and confidence? Sign up for one of our upcoming workshops, including January 28th at Our Lady of Hope in Potomac Falls, VA, and a newly-added workshop on February 22nd at Precious Blood in Culpeper, VA. What Others Are Saying “Thank you for inviting us to have our home and family consecrated to the Holy Trinity and the Holy Family. It was truly a beautiful experience… I hope and pray that our home will be a ‘little taste of heaven’ to anyone who enters.” – Niki Woodley, Leesburg, VA. Please Join Us In Prayer We invite you to keep the following needs in prayer and thanksgiving: For the Trinity House Cafe staff and volunteers, as several baristas return to college and the Cafe seeks to fill several positions. For all families, that they begin 2020 by making the most of the opportunity to plan, prioritize, and begin anew in the sacred calling to make their home a “domestic church.”In Christ, Soren & Ever Johnson Co-Directors Trinity House Community |
Life Lessons from a Father of Nine
May 7, 2024
Listen Now Sometimes you have to hit pause and thank God for one who has run the race well—and we’d like to do that as we
