Do an OGRE daily

I'm volunteering as a member of Core on my parish's Lifeteen youth group this year. As part of it, we had to attend a mandatory leader's retreat this weekend. Mike, our youth minister, gave us a handy little acronym that will help us grow in holiness, and I wanted to share it with you, along with some of my own commentary.

O - morning OFFERING - start out your morning by saying a simple prayer dedicating your day and everything you do in it to God. This is something that I often forget to do, simply because I do most of my specific prayers at night before bed. But I'm trying! I think I'm going to take his advice about taping a reminder on my mirror.

G - say GRACE - say grace before every meal. This helps us become more grateful, and gets us praying at least three times during the day. This one is hard for me, especially for breakfast and lunch, simply because I'm not in the habit of it. Also, doing a sign of the cross is still a bit intimidating for me in public, but it's another thing I'm working on. J and I have gotten decent at praying before dinner when we eat together, so the rest of it is something that I'm trying to work on.

R - READ your Bible - this is something that my stint at the Protestant Church really helped with. They really advocate reading the Bible, since it is basically their only source of authority. But Catholic's should read it too! It such an important way that God communicates with us. Right now I am in the midst of trying to read the whole Bible in a year. It's a good discipline exercise, and also helps me to learn more about the people in the Bible.

E - EXAMINATION of conscience - essentially, before you go to bed you should examine yourself for any sins that you may have committed throughout the day, ask forgiveness for them, and assess whether you should go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation or not.

Hopefully this will help you on your journey to God, I think it's starting to help me, and I'm going to keep on working on it!