The joy of Christmas is behind us and a new year is at our front door. There is something delightful about both days. Christmas reminds us in a very vivid way of the fact that God loves each one of us individually, personally, completely, infinitely and New Year’s Day naturally provides us for an opportunity to both look back and to look ahead. We can’t handle our future successfully unless we at least occasionally evaluate the strengths and weaknesses that we have displayed in our own recent past.
We all know that New Year’s resolutions tend to be a joke. Many of us lists all the little inconsistencies and foibles in our own lives about which we are conscious and we decide that we are going to do a little bit better – less complaining, less chocolate candy, more thoughtfulness with our spouse, etc., etc. Many have the good will and the discipline to actually make a measurable improvement in this or that weakness, but many of them are completely forgotten by February 1st.
I am of the opinion that instead of making a list of self-improvements that have to run in the face of firmly established bad habits, that we should use the great gift of our minds to stop and think about the good things in our lives, the blessings that we experience, the gifts that God has given us. We are all conscious of the fact that we have blessings and strengths but we tend to be a little bit more conscious of negative things. I regret that this is a fact but it is. Maybe we can alter it a little bit.
Today, I want to think about a special gift that God has given nearly every one of us and that is the gift of the human voice. Do you ever think about it? Our minds explore the universe, carry us back for thousands of years and open up the future. These are all exciting things but if you don’t have the opportunity to share them with someone else, the joy is lessened considerably. The gift that God has given us in order to enable us to share them is the human voice. Yes, there are other means of communication – writing, hand signals, waving flags, etc., etc. – but the human voice is the prime method of communication for the great majority of us and what a gift it is.
God spreads his gifts out. Not everybody is Luciano Pavarotti. Not all of us have the melodious, beautiful voices such as that of Richard Burton. It is a gift to be used and to be used in consideration of other people.
I have often said that our individual voices are like a bag of golf balls. There is a putter, there is a driver and there are three, five and seven irons to help us get up on the green and into that little hole. Great golfers know exactly which club to use and that makes the difference between winning and losing. Some people, however, may not be all that good in selecting the proper voice. Have you ever been in a nice restaurant when that man two tables over wants you to know about his failed estate deal? Do you know people who have a tendency to whisper everything forgetting that you are wearing a hearing aid for a reason? Let’s stop and think about our voice. When we want to display anger, when we want to calm a child who has just fallen and hurt his knee, when we want to console someone who has just lost a spouse and when you want to tell a business associate that this is your final offer – each one of these requires different tones and a different exercise of the gift of the voice. The main thing, however, is to appreciate it. It is a gift from God. Most of us have it. Let’s thank him for it and use it thoughtfully.
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You had better get to bed early tonight! If you do not, you will most likely be kept awake until two or three in the morning, because most of the world will be a noisy place.
People love new beginnings. We love Sunday, we love birthdays. We love re-establishing old friendships. There is just something invigorating about starting over, and that’s what the noise is about tonight. We’re starting over!
Forget the noise, and let’s ask ourselves from what position are we starting? It’s not for nothing that there is this strong tradition to make resolutions, challenging ourselves to improve. This time I’m really going to stop smoking. I’ve got to stop eating all that chocolate. I’m going to try to talk less at the dinner table. I’m even going to try to stop criticizing my brother-in-law, who incidentally, deserves the criticism.
Don’t waste your pyschic energy on superficial efforts such as these.
for this New Year’s Eve, our goals should be (and it is the goal of our life itself)- to LOVE GOD MORE. When we came into existence, it was to reflect the infinite power of God. When, as maturing children, we began to grasp that fact, we should be struck with awe that we are created by, loved by, and invited to eternal life with the infinite being who loves us. That is an awesome fact, but it should not stop there. Love begets love. Everything in our life is from God. And without being distracted by these gifts, we should zero in on the simple fact that I can develop my capacity to LOVE. Love is a virtue that can be developed. None of us love God enough. Let us admit to ourselves that we are going to deepen and enrich the love already in our hearts to a tremendous degree. To love God is to live!
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Everyone knows that tomorrow is New Year’s Day. Tonight there will be a lot of noise and silliness and, sadly, probably a few accidents because many people feel compelled to begin the New Year with a party.
In the Catholic Church, this day is set aside for yet another purpose. It has been designated by the Universal Church as the World Day of Prayer for Peace. Pray for peace? Do we really need to be reminded about that? Aren’t we all aware of the agony, the suffering, the waste of lives and material resources that war brings? Aren’t we conscious of how much pain is in our families because of violence and anger? We need peace in our living rooms, peace at the dining room table. We need peace at the playgrounds. We need peace between the nearly 200 governments that exist on this planet.
By all means, let’s make a key resolution that we will put praying for peace into our daily schedule for morning and night prayers and occasionally through the day when the thought comes to us.
Peace, what a beautiful thought. Peace, what a necessity. Peace, how elusive because of human failure.
May you have a happy and blessed New Year.
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We all know the lines. I am going to take off 20 pounds, I am going to save 5% of my paycheck, I am going to stop complaining about my brother-in-law, etc., etc., etc. We talk about them and them we laugh and we go on about our business without any real serious effort or change. This is a misuse of a valuable tool for self-improvement.
As a new year begins and we look into the future, asking ourselves will 2011 be just another rerun of 2010 and 2009, it doesn’t have to be. We all know people who solve their problems, who overcome their weaknesses and who make life easier for those around them. We should all attempt to move ourselves in that direction. I think that one of the richest areas for self-improvement is to do some soul searching and honestly identify the weaknesses that we have that make life difficult for the people around us. Those changes are not easy but they can be measured with some degree of accuracy.
The Church has a long and rich tradition of the importance of self-examination and of spiritual goal setting. Let’s take advantage of this important symbolic date and look into the future with honesty and resolve.
Onward through the fog.
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The joy of Christmas is behind us and a new year is at our front door. There is something delightful about both days. Christmas reminds us in a very vivid way of the fact that God loves each one of us individually, personally, completely, infinitely and New Year’s Day naturally provides us for an opportunity to both look back and to look ahead. We can’t handle our future successfully unless we at least occasionally evaluate the strengths and weaknesses that we have displayed in our own recent past.
Themocracy