Happy New Year!

 

I just wanted to wish everyone a blessed and happy new year! 

I pray that this new year will bring you many blessings and I hope you will continue to grow in your faith in a new special way.

New Year's Resolutions sound kind of cheesy and it seems like they never last, but if you make a commitment to stick to them, they can help you begin a new routine of prayer and help you to grow in holiness. I invite you to make a list or at least write down some goals you want to achieve to help you grow in your faith. One thing you can definitely do is to go to St. Joseph's Holy Family for a First Saturday Devotion and keep coming back! It will definitely keep you on the right path and help you expand your faith life.

A thought-provoking quote I found was said by Benjamin Franklin: "Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." This quote challenges us to constantly grow and to keep trying to be the best we can be.We should always be fighting the sin in our lives and try harder to be peaceful and more Christlike to everyone we meet.

In today's homily, Pope Benedict said, "May the Virgin Mary, whom today we venerate with the title of Mother of God, help us to contemplate the face of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. May she sustain us and accompany us in this New Year: and may she obtain for us and for the whole world the gift of peace." During this new year, I encourage you to become more devoted to Our Lady. Ask her to lead you to her Son, and I'm sure she will be more than happy to!

Here's a prayer for the new year:

 God, thank you for a new year. May everyone in our family be willing to begin anew with a clean slate. We know that you are always ready to forgive us. Help us to be willing to forgive ourselves and to forgive one another. As we begin a new year, remind us of our truest values and our deepest desires. Help us to live in the goodness that comes from doing what you want us to do. Help us to put aside anxiety about the future and the past, so that we might live in peace with you now, one day at a time.

January 1, 2013

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

 "And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart."

(from today's Gospel reading - Luke 2:19)