Happy New Year!
I am grateful for the gift of life and the New Year. My prayer is that this New Year will be more blessed than the previous one. Amen.
If I may ask, what are your plans for this New Year? Any New Year resolutions?
Honestly, I gave up on making New Year resolutions some time ago. Those lists of to-dos don’t work for me. Neither has the inventory to achieve this or achieve that.
I have some friends, though, who operate by New Year’s resolutions. It keeps them focused, and it works for them. People are different. Beauty of creation. Blessings of Diversity. Thank God the world isn’t a monotone. Follow what works for you.
What works for me is seeing my life as a continuum. I try, by the grace of God, to make adjustments throughout the New Year. It saves me from unnecessary anxiety and frustrations.
Permit me to share one specific spiritual tip that works for me. It’s been beneficial to me, and I would want to share, hoping my experience will bless you. Feel free to share yours also.
I dedicate my New Year to Jesus through Mary. I do this by long hours of prayers the day before, and a few more days after, the New Year.
On the New Year, I celebrate the Mass of Mary, the Mother of God. During it, I connect with the universal Church in asking for the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God, as she did at the wedding feast at Cana in Galilea. We know that the Lord Jesus answered her request, bringing about the first miracle Jesus ever performed when it wasn’t his time to go public yet (see John 2). I ask Mary to play that role for me as well throughout the year. She does.
It’s brilliant for the Catholic Church to set January 1 as a special feast of Mary. Beginning the year with Jesus Christ, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is having the real deal. Liturgical spirituality (spirituality built on the liturgical life of the Church) is a blessing. It’s rich.
Praying with Mary as she intercedes to her Son on our behalf is a special honor for those who realize what blessings the Mother of the Lord is to believers, the beloved disciples. I tell you, my year is blessed exceedingly by so doing.
Hence, in addition to your New Year resolutions, I would recommend dedicating your New Year to God. Doing so through the intercessions of the greatest Saint Mary, the Mother of our Lord, would be an excellent idea.
We do not know what the year holds. Only God knows. So, dedicating every second, minute, hour, week, and month of the year to God and asking God to lead us to the where and the how of the best things for our blessings, salvation, and God’s glory is a wonderful practice. God never fails.
Hand the year over to God, and God will take care of it.
[January 1, Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God; The Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord: Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21]
I dedicate my life this year to GOD ( the Trinitarian aspect) through Mary. Since I live alone I look forward to His Presence at every moment in my life.