Happy New Year

As Catholic Christians, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family on the Sunday following our Christmas celebration of the birth of Jesus. Most of us live the majority of our lives as part of a nuclear family; all of us live our lives as part of the human family.  It is through the mundane routines of daily life and community living that God leads us to goodness and everlasting life. “Like the rings on a tree, the cycles of Christian feasts are meant to mark the levels of our spiritual growth from one stage to another in the process of human growth.” (Joan Chittester)

So, too, the end of the year becomes a yardstick by which we measure our progress on life’s journey through grace to holiness.  We age, moving from one year to the next, asking ourselves how can we live more peacefully, more justly, more passionately and more lovingly?

May the coming of the New Year bring you hope that

“… the single, most significant dimension of life is your relationship with the Source of Goodness who never ceases to sing love songs to your soul”

and “that you carry peace within yourself, allowing it to slip into the hearts of others so our planet becomes a place where violence, division, and war are no more.” (Excerpted from New Year’s Blessing by Joyce Rupp)