My dear friends,
I am typing these words a few days after Advent Sunday – the start of the Christian Church’s new liturgical year – ready for 1st January 2025 and the start of a new calendar year.
Many people make New Year’s resolutions on 1st January each year: they will lose weight, go to the gym, go to an evening class, clear out the shed, and so forth. They are usually well intentioned to begin with; but often by February these resolutions have been quietly shelved.
Might I make a spiritual suggestion: why don’t we each try to make a New Year’s Christian resolution about our lives in 2025. Perhaps we rush our daily prayers; or there may be days when we don’t manage to pray. In this case, we might resolve to pray more regularly at home – we should find that even two minutes of prayer in the morning and evening make a noticeable difference.
Perhaps churchgoing on Sundays is not always easy – there is the family, or sport, or cooking – and before long it can be several weeks since we last went to church. Jesus misses us and is always pleased to see us in church. We might try to go more often.
Perhaps we have been putting off being Baptised or Confirmed. 2025 might be the right time to make enquiries and do something about it.
Jesus taught us to pray: ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’. Do we need to patch up a relationship, forgive someone, make a fresh start in a relationship? Do we ourselves need to seek forgiveness from someone or from God?
These are just a few ideas. Perhaps you can think of others.
The key point, it seems to me, is not to take on something unmanageable – which is where most people’s ordinary New Year’s resolutions go wrong. We discover and serve God in lots of small things, done regularly, in the right spirit.
The years seem to pass more quickly as we grow older. It is given to few people to leave the world a better place; but, with God’s grace, we make each leave the world a better person.
With love and prayers for 2025
Father Robert.