Dear friends,

Happy New Year. (Since this is actually New Year’s Day I can actually say it and mean it). The New Year always seems to be a time for great new beginnings, relatively speaking, of course, because the New Year is simply an arbitrary convention for measuring the passage of time, specifically the rotation of the earth around the sun.  For us, the beginning of that measurement is based on the Gregorian Calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, although in some circles now called the International Calendar (you know the world has to erase anything that smells of the Catholic Church).  But there are many other calendars as well, the Chinese Calendar, when the New Year begins in February, the Jewish Calendar, when the New Year begins in September, the Hindu Calendar, when it begins in March, the Islamic Calendar, which moves around because it is 12 days shorter than the Gregorian Calendar. 

But no matter what calendar we use, the new year always speaks to us of “new ness.”  New beginnings should be a time of hope, of dreams, of higher expectations.  That’s why we hear so much talk of “resolutions,” things we want to do differently.  We have hopes that the future we are stepping into will be brighter than the past we are leaving behind.  I think this can especially be said of 2011.  It was a year of natural disasters, even in our own area, Hurricane Irene and our infamous snow storm of October. Whether it be hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, it was, literally, a disastrous year for humankind.  It was a year for political disasters as well, a year when those we trust with governmental office could not seem to think of their obligation to the common good, but only their own “cause,” resulting in a paralysis that has paralyzed our hope for the future. For our community here at Mount Carmel, it brought many sadnesses that will linger for a long time to come. When we add to all of these the continuing, worldwide economic disaster, it might be concluded that 2011 will go down as a year to forget.

So, as we stand at the edge of 2012, what do you look forward to or for, what hopes and dreams fill your minds?  Some will be universal; peace, economic recovery, troops coming home safely from overseas.  Some will be very particular, perhaps a wedding, a new baby, or a new job, a reconciliation.  Whatever they may be, if they are in your power, work hard to realize them.  If they are not, pray hard for them to come to pass.

I, too, have my dreams for this new year of 2012, for the most part, many of the same dreams of last year.  Besides winning the lottery (like everyone else, of course), I dream that more and more people rediscover God’s deep and abiding love for them.  The Christian/Catholic message is a simple one – God loves us, created us in love, is saddened by our sinfulness, because we hurt ourselves more than we hurt Him and, thus, make our world a place of pain and suffering.  He sent Jesus, the Word, to show us the way and give us the grace (help) to follow it, so we might find our way home to Him, stilling the restlessness of our hearts. 

  
It really is a simple message.  To hear it, accept it and live by it can make a world of difference in a person’s life.  And this whole way of living and viewing the world is strengthened by living in a community of people who believe and live the same, the community of the Church, of the parish. 

How I dream that people here, Catholics here, would rediscover for themselves and their families this simple truth.  It would be awesome for them; it would be awesome for us; it would be awesome for the world.  What a year it could be.  Again – Happy New Year.

God Bless,
Fr. Ron

PS.  Because Christmas and Mary, Mother of God (New Year’s Day) fall on a Sunday this year, without an intervening Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family was celebrated this past Friday, Dec. 30th.  Lest we forget the importance of family in our lives and culture, I offer this prayer, composed by Robert Louis Stevenson, for all our families and for the parish family of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

 
Lord, behold our family here assembled.  We thank you for this place in which we dwell;
For the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day;for the hope with which we
Wait for tomorrow; for the health, the work, the food and the bright skies that make our lives
Delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth.

 
Let peace abound in our small community.  Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge.
Give us grace and strength to forbear and persevere.  Give us the grace to accept and forgive offenses.
Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others.

 
Give us courage and gaiety and a quiet mind.  Spare us to our friends, soften us to our enemies.  Bless us in all our endeavors.
 

Give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we may be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath and
 

In all changes in fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving, one to another.

 
As the clay to the potter, as the windmill to the wind, as
children to their father, we ask of
 

You this help and mercy for Christ’s sake.  Amen.