Ed Broom - Road Map to Heaven: A Catholic Plan of Life

Be a Saint. These words constantly echo in my heart through the many years of listening to Fr. Eds powerful teachings, inspiring homilies, and spiritual guidance. Fr. Ed has planted in my heart the truth that we are made by God, for God, to be with God for all eternity. Road Map to Heaven is the perfect GPS for the most important journey in our lives. This little book was lovingly written, with Gods grace, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the intercession of our Blessed Mother by a priest I consider a living saint. A must-read for all!

Toffee Jeturian

Couples for Christ USA National Director

In this wonderful little book, Fr. Ed Broom maps out a plan to deepen your spiritual life in pursuit of heaven. Fr. Ed is an outstanding guide to direct us on the path to heaven with practical insights to help you strive for sainthood. Read the book, and then follow the plan!

Cathy Fitzpatrick

Associate Director of Adult & Child Faith Formation

St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church

Yorba Linda, CA

B EFORE outlining a methodical, organized, systematic, cohesive, and practical plan of life, let us first try to explain this so-called plan of life. What on earth is a plan of life?

Order the Disordered

In the texts of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, we read that one of the primary purposes of the Spiritual Exercises is to order the disordered in our life so that we can discover Gods will and carry it out.

As a result of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve (Gn 3), disorder entered into the world on all levels: natural disorder, social disorder, family disorder, physical disorder, mental disorder, emotional disorder, moral disorder, and spiritual disorderall of these became part and parcel of our very existence through sin. Mankind was adrift and the doors of heaven were closed to us until the coming of the Messiah. In his incarnation, life, passion, death, and resurrection, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came to restore order in the world and in our personal lives and, thus, to open the gates of heaven once more to Gods most glorious creation, man.

Before we embark on any project, it helps to have a plan. For some projects, it is essential. This, the reordering of our lives so that they become more God-centered, is one such project that requires a plan. That is the purpose and the proposal for composing ones plan of lifeto put in order the disorder in our lives. A well-composed and practical plan of life that is lived out can have incredible value in our lives and put us on the right path to arrive safely at and through the heavenly gates.

The huge majority of people do not know where they are headed, have no concrete purpose in life, and float around like so many leaves blown by the wind. They live with constant stress, anxiety, nervous tension, and very often suffer from depression, be it mild or severe.

On the contrary, the person who has a plan of life to live by has a huge advantage! He knows where he has come fromGod! He knows where he is headingheaven. He knows how to get thereJesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Finally, by composing and writing out a plan of life, he has given himself a spiritual road map so as to arrive at his final destinythe kingdom of God! Therefore, we encourage you to compose and write out your own plan of life, your spiritual road map; in todays world, you may even call it your spiritual GPS! But no matter what you call it, its purpose will be to lead you to and keep you safely and securely on the highway to heaven.

It must be said from the start of this plan of life project that those who undertake this most noble enterprise of composing their personal plan of life must have the help of a spiritual director, some spiritual guide, some spiritual person to accompany them. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, as well as Saint Teresa of Avila, insisted on the dire need to have a director in ones spiritual life. The temptations, obstacles, and pitfalls in the spiritual life are far too numerous for anyone who seriously undertakes this spiritual journey to go along this way without some form of spiritual direction. Therefore, we warmly exhort all of those who plan to compose their own personal road map to heaven to secure some form of spiritual direction. We all have many blind-spots, and without the help of some qualified person outside our own experience, we can easily be deceived and tricked!

Forms of the Plan of Life

Chronological Plan of Life

There are several forms of the plan of life. However, in our short and humble work, we will be offering essentially two forms. You can do one or the other, or you can do boththe liberty of the sons and daughters of God! Each person should feel free to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in his or her life. Of course, this free movement should be moderated, guided, and checked by a trained spiritual director. God speaks through many channels, one of those being through the trustworthy guidance of a spiritual director.

The first form of the plan of life we would call or term a chronological plan of life. By chronological, we mean a plan of life in terms of a division in time brackets. This means that you want to step back and have an eagles overview, an eagles panoramic vision of the time that God has so generously given to you. Then, immersed in prayer, you want to humbly beg for the grace to make the very best use of the time that God has given to you. In other words, you do not want to be wasting time in this short life given to you by your Creator.

The time brackets can be divided into general and specific as defined in philosophical language. In each time bracket you want to discern and decidewith the help of the Holy Spirit and your spiritual directorwhat you would like to offer to the Lord. In other words, your plan of life is an offering, an oblation, a sacrifice that you want to give to God. If God has given you so much, should you not be ready and willing to give God something in return? Call to mind how much Jesus gave for you as he hung on the cross that first Good Friday, shedding every drop of his precious blood for the eternal salvation of your immortal soul. His love demands a response of love on your part. This is the spiritual motivation of the plan of lifeto give yourselfyour time, your efforts, your energy, your mind, heart, will, and whole being to God as an acceptable holocaust of love, thanksgiving, and praise!

Therefore, you want to look at the year and what you can offer to the Lord. Then scroll down to the month bracket and what your generous offering to the Lord can be. Following the month, of course, is the week. Much can be done in the course of the week. What are you willing to give to the Lord? Then move to the twenty-four hours in each day. A well-ordered and well-organized plan of life can offer to the Lord many golden nuggets in the course of these twenty-four hours! Now what about the hourly basis? Read and pray carefully over the text and see what you can give to the Lord during some hours in the course of the day. How about minutes and even seconds? In a word, God has given us allwe belong to God, and we want to give all that we have to our loving and almighty heavenly Father. We want to be generous with God. It is true that God cannot be outdone in generosity, but he is waiting patiently for our generous response.