Num 6:22-27.
Psalm 67:2-3,5,6,8.
Gal 4:4-7.
Luke 2:16-21 Full Readings
New Year Blessings
Brethren, Happy New Year 2022: May the LORD bless us and keep us! May the LORD shine his face upon us and be gracious to us! May the LORD look upon us kindly and give us peace! Especially in this New Year. This a way of blessing as we see in the first readings and let us claim these blessings to enable us to start this new year in the hands of the Lord as we surrender everything. We implore the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God, whose feast we celebrate today, and the newly born and named king, Jesus as we see in today's Gospel. The name Jesus signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son who became man for our salvation. Peter the Apostle exclaimed that there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved (Acts 2:12). In the name of Jesus demons flee, cripples walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised. His name is exalted far above every other name (Philippians 2:9-11).
In fulfilment of this precept, Mary's newborn child is given the name Jesus on the eighth day according to the Jewish custom. Joseph and Mary gave the name Jesus because that is the name given by God's messenger before Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb (Luke 1:31, Matthew 1:21). This name signifies Jesus' identity and his mission. The literal Hebrew means the Lord saves. Since God alone can forgive sins and free us from death, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son, became a man to offer up his life as the atoning sacrifice to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). The son that Mary bore is both God and man - the "Word who was God" (John 1:1) and who "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). That is why Mary is not only called the mother of the Christ (the Greek word for Messiah in Hebrew) but also the mother of God or Theotokos in Greek which literally means "God bearer."
And so, also, on this, the eighth day of the Octave of Christmas, we turn our focus to the unique and beautiful fact that God chose to enter our world through a human mother. Mary is called the “Mother of God” for the simple fact that her Son is God. She was not the mother of her Son’s flesh alone, nor the mother only of His human nature. This is because the Person of Jesus, the Son of God, is one Person. And that one Person took on flesh within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary became the Mother of God firstly because she was preserved from all sin when she was conceived within the womb of her mother, Saint Anne thus making her the perfect and pure instrument necessary to bring forth God into the world and secondly, Mother Mary remained faithful to this gift of grace throughout her life, never choosing to sin, never wavering, never turning from God. Her act of perfect unity with the will of God throughout her life makes her, also, the perfect mother of divine grace and mercy and perpetually the spiritual Mother of God, continually and perfectly bringing Him into our world.
Therefore, today, brethren, let us invoke the name of Jesus to help us in this new year and his mother also to move with us until new year dawns again. Let us examine ourselves and examine how the year has been, what was good, what did we achieve, what promises did we fulfil? What went wrong, what bad did we do, what did I fail to do, what good did I do wrongly, where did I lose trust in God? What are the best and worst experiences? Where is God in all these experiences, what is he teaching me in all these and what is he asking me to do in this new year? What are your resolutions and promises to God this year and in which way are you planning to achieve them? Reflect on these and others and you will find all the reasons to give thanks to God.
Brethren, as we enter into New Year, let us also use these scriptural passages to aid our reflections and to enter the New Year with the Lord:
Look Back on His Blessings: Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, Psalms 105: 5; 1 Chronicles 16:11-12)
Focus on The Future, And God’s Plans for You: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)
Don’t Worry About What Is to Come: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)
Plan Ahead for The Coming Year: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?” (Luke 14:28-30)
Find Contentment in God This Year, And Give Thanks: “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering or in need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)
Even if you have endured such a year as Job had, you have so much for which to be thankful. No suffering or tragedy should overshadow the “love upon love, grace upon grace” (John 1:16) that God pours out over you. “Of His fullness we have all had a share” (John 1:16). The Lord has again “crowned the year” with His bounty (Ps 65:12). “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right and just”
“Give thanks to God the Father always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). “Dedicate yourselves to thankfulness” (Col 3:15). “Let the last word be, He is all in all! Let us praise Him the more, since we cannot fathom Him, for greater is He than all His works” (Sir 43:28-29). Thank You, Jesus, for 2022. I love You with all my heart.
Even if you have endured such a year as Job had, you have so much for which to be thankful. No suffering or tragedy should overshadow the “love upon love, grace upon grace” (John 1:16) that God pours out over you. “Of His fullness we have all had a share” (John 1:16). The Lord has again “crowned the year” with His bounty (Ps 65:12). “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right and just”
“Give thanks to God the Father always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). “Dedicate yourselves to thankfulness” (Col 3:15). “Let the last word be, He is all in all! Let us praise Him the most, since we cannot fathom Him, for greater is He than all His works” (Sir 43:28-29). Thank You, Jesus, for 2022. I love You with all my heart.
New Year Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank you for all the blessings, protection, and all everything you have done for me in the year 2022, which were not by merit but from your gratuitous abundant grace. Thank You Lord. I come before at the beginning of the year 2023, to ask you for forgiveness for what may have gone wrong, for the promises to you which I broke and did not fulfil, for the sins I have committed against you and my neighbour, for being a bad witness to your Holy Name, for hurting my fellows, for the things I have done wrongly, for the things I did do and I ought to have done, for the good I did wrongly, for the chances I have missed and have taken for granted, for failing to live up to my vocation, for all the addictions, for failing to be faithful to you all the time, and for all things I know and all those I have forgotten which are against your will, and the common good.
Forgive me Lord and Renew me, make me a new person and give me a new heart as I enter into this new year. By your grace and love I place everything and my life into your hands, take it and use it for your glory during this year 2023 and may I be a blessing and a source of blessing to those who will see, hear, talk, relate and be with me. Make me a sign of your presence to everyone this year and may my life make others give you glory in heaven.
I pray for your Holy Spirit during this year, to lead, guide and rule my life. Shower me with all the blessings I need this year to do your will and to live a life of peace, happiness and harmony with myself and others. I pray for all the gifts, talents and virtues to come and fill me. Develop the good that is me, give me more goods in my life, and dispel all traces of darkness and evil acts in me so that I will live for you and only you Lord. May I, at the end of this year, find all my dreams, goals and visions of this year, and may next year also find me praising and glorifying your name always. Be with me always until the end of my life. Amen
HAPPY NEW YEAR AND BE BLESSED
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