Happy New Year!

01-01-2023From Fr. Antony's DeskFr. Antony Arockiadoss

Dear Family!

I wish you all a God-filled New Year! As many of you know that Christmas is not just a day but a season, we are filled abundantly by God with graces and blessings in all these days of the season.

Our happiness is multiplied by many important feasts days that we celebrate in this season starting with Saint Stephen, the First Martyr (December 26), Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist (December 27) Holy Innocents (December 28) and the feast of Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (December 30).

The Octave Day of Christmas is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God (January 1st). With three other memorials (St. Basil & St. Gregory (January 2), St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (January 4) and St. John Neumann (January 5) we also celebrate three optional memorials this week: The Most Holy Name of Jesus (January 3), Saint Andre Bessette (January 6) and Saint Raymond Penyafort (January 7).

The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord is celebrated next Sunday and with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord on Monday, January 9th we conclude the season of Christmas and enter into Ordinary Season.

The Old Testament Reading on the first day of the year has one of the finest blessings in the Bible. We need God’s grace and blessings everyday to keep our time holy and God-filled. God’s gift of time is an invitation to everyone to seek His Face, His Kingdom. Mary as the Mother of God experienced the ‘restlessness’ in her heart. The light in her to fulfill God’s will never missed to affect her Son in the womb. Jesus was not only sharing her blood for nourishment but also her spirituality. We are given that Marian Spirituality as a gift on the first day of the New Year. As her sons and daughters we fulfill God’s will for us, for our families and for our community.

We also pray for world peace today. Pope John Paul II said, “To pray for peace is to open the human heart to the inroads of God’s power to renew all things. To pray for peace is to pray for Justice, for a right-ordering or relations within and among nations and peoples. It is to pray for freedom of every individual. It is to seek God’s forgiveness, and to implore the courage to forgive those who have trespassed against us.”

Mary is the model of the Church and a great source of inspiration to all of us. By remembering her faithfulness to God, we live out her values and inspiration all the days of this year and the years to come. Let us make all our Godgiven time holy by following the example of Mary, the Mother of God. Amen.

Happy New Year!

Fr. Antony

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