New Year Wishes

As we approach the New Year our minds naturally turn to the future and we’ll all make many resolutions to be healthier, wealthier or happier, and to set personal goals is a wonderful way to motivate ourselves to a better way of life.  As Christians, we’re all encouraged to do the same, to take stock as we wave farewell to one year and to make resolve as we welcome in another.  How? The last year has seen such hatred in the world between war, violence and destruction, with innocent lives ruined by nameless faces, and yet amid that so much more love and goodness has come alive as people try to help, care, encourage and support those suffering most.  So much pain ahs visited our Parish in farewells and sickness and yet so much compassion and kindness has come alive to help too.  And in each tiny act of goodness the face of God has shone from through the dark clouds.  As a new year approaches, in your resolutions look to the past and all that is good and why not make it your goal to make those kindnesses a constant way of life, make love the healthy option in all you say and do, and make the new year a truly blessed time for everyone that you can bless.  GK Chesterton wrote, “Every New Year is a chance to refresh our soul and renew our promises to God.  It’s a great time to reflect on the things we did well in the previous year, and how we can continue to be better disciples of God in the new Year”, and when you think of it, it’s so simple to be good, to be Christian, and yet it makes so much difference to so many others.  This New Year may God bless us all with a softness to care, a courage to defend, a warmth to smile, a heart to sometimes weep, and a faith and trust that all we are and do is guided by Him and will build heaven on earth a little more. 

With best wishes for the New Year – Fr O’Neill