A Note from Father Rich — An Invitation to Support This Ministry
My friend, before you read on, I want to share something from the heart.
Message from the Margins is more than a newsletter. It is a ministry of compassion, courage, and conscience. Every reflection, prayer, story, and pastoral message I share here is part of a calling: to help people make sense of faith in a world that often feels loud, chaotic, and exhausting… and to remind those who feel forgotten that they are seen, loved, and worthy.
This work takes time, energy, and a whole lot of soul. And I want to keep building it, deepening it, and expanding it so we can reach more people who need a word of hope spoken gently and truthfully… from the margins where Christ so often walks.
If this ministry has nourished your spirit, challenged your heart, or helped you feel a little less alone on the journey, I want to invite you to consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Your support helps make possible:
• pastoral writing grounded in compassion and intellect
• reflections that resist cruelty and spiritual abuse
• prayers and resources for those who feel spiritually displaced
• ongoing community and formation work
• the steady growth of a progressive, faithful Christian voice
This community is sustained not by algorithms or ad dollars… but by people who believe that a Gospel rooted in love and mercy still matters.
If you’re able, I would be deeply grateful if you joined as a paid supporter today. And if now is not the season for that, you are still welcome here. Your presence matters just as much.
But if you can help carry this work forward — even a little — it truly makes a difference.
With gratitude, hope, and love…
Thank you for walking with me.
— Father Rich V
OPENING
Every January, the world seems to wake up and collectively announce that it is finally time to become perfect. Gym memberships spike, planners get purchased, and half-filled journals start piling up like gravestones for dreams that never quite made it past the second week of the year.
We promise ourselves we’ll be more disciplined, more productive, more centered, more loving, more… everything. And for a little while, maybe we are. Then life steps in with its familiar chaos, and the aspiration quietly drifts back onto the shelf.
If you’ve ever started a grand New Year’s resolution only to watch it crumble under exhaustion, stress, or just plain human frailty, you are in good company. You are not broken. You are human.
And here’s the truth: Resolutions fail because they demand reinvention.
But the spiritual life was never about reinvention. It was always about return.
Throughout Scripture, change happens not in one dramatic leap, but through patient, steady turning. Turning back to God. Turning back to love. Turning back to who we were called to be in the first place.
Jesus speaks of seeds, not revolutions. Of mustard plants, not fireworks. Of small, faithful acts that grow in quiet soil.
And that is where real transformation lives.
Not in an annual promise shouted into the void…
but in a daily, gentle “yes.”
This isn’t about fixing yourself. It is about cooperating with grace already at work in you.
And grace works incrementally.
REFLECTION
Spiritual growth happens the same way nature grows: slowly, faithfully, organically. In Luke 17:21, Jesus tells us, “The kingdom of God is within you.” Not waiting at the finish line of some self-improvement marathon. Already alive, already stirring.
Our work is not to manufacture progress. Our work is to nurture what God has planted.
The Christian tradition has always understood this. Monastic rules weren’t written to produce spiritual superheroes. They were built around small, repeatable habits: prayer, community, rest, service, reflection, confession, gratitude.
Tiny acts, done faithfully, reshape the soul over time.
And if I’m honest, I’ve lived the other way too. I’ve made the lofty commitments. I’ve tried to change everything at once. I’ve hit the wall, felt the shame, and quietly abandoned it all rather than admit I needed a gentler path.
It was only when I stopped asking, “How do I become a different person?”
and instead asked, “How do I live today with more intention, mercy, and awareness?”
that something meaningful began to shift.
Not spectacularly. Not dramatically.
But truly.
So instead of New Year’s resolutions… here are ten small spiritual practices that, over time, change lives in real and measurable ways.
Not because they make us stronger…
…but because they make us more available to grace.
10 SPIRITUALLY-ROOTED HABITS THAT CULTIVATE REAL CHANGE
-
Begin each morning with one grounding breath and a simple prayer.
“Here I am, Lord. Help me live today with love.” -
Practice a daily two-minute examen at night.
Where did I act in love? Where did I fall short? Where can I try again tomorrow?
(Psalm 139:23-24) -
Choose one act of kindness every day that no one else will see.
Service reshapes the heart in silence. -
Replace one reflex of judgment with one reflex of curiosity.
Ask yourself, “What might I not know about this person’s story?” -
Let your prayer life include your anger, fears, and doubts.
God does not need you to perform holiness. God wants honesty. -
Create one small Sabbath moment each day.
Not a full day, just one protected pocket of rest. -
Speak to yourself with the compassion you would give someone you love.
“Love your neighbor as yourself” implies that you, too, are worthy of care.
(Mark 12:31) -
Choose presence over productivity once a day.
Put the phone down. Breathe. Be where your feet are. -
Ask for forgiveness sooner, and offer it more freely.
Healing doesn’t come from winning. It comes from reconciling. -
Remember that growth is not linear.
Some seasons are about blooming. Some are about surviving. God is present in both.
None of these will trend on Instagram. None will be sold in a “New You” bundle.
But live them, patiently and imperfectly, and your interior world will change.
Because God always works through the small and faithful.
CALL TO FAITHFUL ACTION
So as this new year unfolds, do not chase reinvention. Chase kindness. Chase meaning. Chase the steady work of love taking root in the ordinary corners of your life.
Let go of the pressure to prove that you are improving.
Instead, cooperate with the grace that is already transforming you, quietly, subtly, beautifully.
And if you stumble, remember: falling down is not failure in the spiritual life. Refusing to get back up is.
We walk this path together… slowly, honestly, faithfully.
CLOSING PRAYER
Loving God,
You do not ask us to become perfect overnight,
or to outrun our humanity,
or to build a new self from the ground up.
You invite us instead into patience, into presence, into becoming.
Teach us to honor the slow work of grace in our lives.
When we grow discouraged, remind us that every small act of love matters.
When we feel unworthy, remind us that we are already held in Your care.
When we feel pressured to reinvent ourselves,
help us return instead to who You created us to be.
Give us courage to begin again each day,
gentleness with our imperfections,
and compassion for the places within us still learning how to heal.
May the habits we cultivate draw us closer to You,
deepen our love for others,
and root us in the peace that the world cannot give.
Walk with us in this new season,
step by step, moment by moment,
until our lives reflect Your light a little more each day.
Amen.