The Gift of a New Year
Theologian and spiritual writer Henri Nouwen once shared these words on the best way to approach a new year: “We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to the voice saying to us: ‘I have a gift for you and can’t wait for you to see it.’”
“The problem is that there are many cunning foxes (and voices) jumping on our shoulders and whispering in our ears the great lie: ‘There is nothing new under the sun.’ When we listen to these foxes (and voices), they eventually prove themselves right: our new year, our new day, our new hour becomes flat, boring, dull and without anything new.”
“We must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resounds through the valleys and hills of our life saying: ‘Let Me show you where I live among My people. My name is ‘God-with-you.’ I will wipe all the tears from your eyes; there will be no more death, no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.’”
As we celebrate the beginning of 2025 and the feast of the Epiphany of our Lord, the manifestation of the Lord to the nations, let us be determined to live each day reflecting the Glory of the Lord and being grateful of the gifts that God has showered upon us.
May God bless each moment of your year,
Father Kennedy