Dear Parish Family,

Perhaps you have created a list of resolutions that you hope to accomplish this year.  OR – they have already fallen by the wayside! Call them what you may, January usually makes us think of starting anew, revising, or tackling who
we would like to be, a better sign of who we are,  or creating goals for ourselves. If nothing else it challenges us to think, recall, and hopefully rejoice. How did I do last year?  As the saying goes – “Out with the old and in with the new.”

Everyone approaches this differently. Some start from scratch, some build on the foundation they have already established, and some say “Oh well!” When we ask for God’s mercy, He grants this to us, but I imagine it is with the hope that we do not have to ask for His mercy over and over for the same thing. A pericope from the bible tells us that Jesus calls us to “follow Him. Let us start over from where we began.  Let us begin anew. I want you to be with me again and again in spite of everything. “ God is able to awaken us no matter what our failures are.

Fr Stanley reminds us  “of times, where we have to take one day at a time, or if needed one hour at a time. And, it is important to give ourselves credit for our accomplishments.” This can be a challenge for some of us, as we see it in our minds as a failure.  NOT!!!

Pope Francis tells us “Whenever we do something together, something good, something beautiful, everyone changes.  All of us change in a way, and this does us good.”

May God bless us all as we begin this new year!

Mary Jo