A Thought for the New Year
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator
In place of my own musings today, I offer the words of St. Teresa Benedicta, also known as Edith Stein.
"A new year at the hand of the Lord Jesus – we do not know whether we shall experience the end of this year. But if we drink from the fount of the Savior each day, then each day will lead us deeper into eternal life and prepare us to throw off the burdens of this life easily and cheerfully at some time when the call of the Lord sounds. The Divine Child offers us his hand to renew our commitment. Let us hurry to clasp this hand. God is my light and my salvation – of whom shall I be afraid." (Edith Stein, The Hidden Life, p. 115)
Sometime during the last week of the year, the local networks will usually run some sort of retrospective regarding the people who had died in the last twelve months. This year was no exception. Christmas mail also often brings similar news as inevitably one or the other card will be returned marked "deceased." Indeed, the past few months have brought us news of several CUSANS' passings.
New Year's Day is not ordinarily a day on which we consider the end of life. Perhaps this is why I found this passage from Edith Stein striking. It certainly directed my morning prayer in a certain direction. I remembered, for instance, that today would have been my sister's 54th birthday. However, she was not the only one I remembered and for whom I prayed.
The coming year offers us yet another opportunity to plumb the depths of God's love revealed to us in His Son, born of the Virgin Mary whose solemnity we keep this day. We also are called to pray for peace in our world. May the year of our Lord, 2013, bring us all a little closer to God our Loving Father and our Savior Jesus Christ with their Holy Spirit guiding us on the road to holiness.
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