Happy New Year!

Another year come and gone. My Director shared the details of the Feast of the Holy Family she celebrated with her community on Sunday and one of the things they did struck me as appropriate for marking the end of an old year and beginning of a new one. Each Sister was asked to name the greatest loss of the year; this was followed by a recounting of the greatest blessing she had received. I want to suggest that we do something similar today. As we move into this new year we begin by getting in touch with our own hearts and name in what ways God has blessed us this year, and in what ways we still seek to be blessed by God. For what are we most grateful and in what ways do we hope for God's powerful presence in our lives in the coming year?

We Christians believe that because he is eternal and living our God is the ground and source of genuine newness. We believe that he is a God who transfigures all of reality into something hope-filled and meaningful. We believe that in Christ we can cooperate with God in his creative and redemptive activity as he brings about a world where heaven and earth profoundly interpenetrate one another and God is all in all. On this holiday, as so many make lists of goals and resolutions for the New Year, may each of us look to the God who is source of all blessings, and recommit ourselves to a time in which God's own projects in us and in all we know and love may be brought to fulfillment. May (he) respond to our deepest needs with a presence that transform need into blessing!  All good wishes for a wonderful year!