A Catholic view for the New Year

    The New Year is a holiday that has always been special to me. Although often it is reduced to a time to have fun — even to an excess — or to some superstitions that supposedly bring “good luck” in the coming year, New Year’s Day is a holiday with deep Christian roots. In fact, our calendar is related to the year of the birth of Jesus Christ.

    We use the initials “AD” at the end of each year number, which mean “Anno Domini,” or “Year of the Lord.”
It is so important that the Church begins the year with the oldest Marian feast day in Christianity, the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, a dogma proclaimed in the Nicene Council in the year 325, on which all other Marian dogmas depend.
    The New Year’s holiday is usually an occasion for a toast to a year of prosperity and peace. Jan. 1 is the World Day of Peace, a secular celebration that the church dedicates to pray for peace since the pontificate of Pope Paul VI.

    The church celebrates this day because it believes that the peace we mutually wish to each other in the New Year’s Eve toast will not come by chance, or because the stars are aligned in a certain way or because of some random act.
    If peace comes to our world, to our society and to our family and personal life, it will not be by chance, but because today’s men and women, especially we Catholics, will cooperate with the grace of God to be able to achieve the peace for which we hope.

    Pope Benedict XVI has chosen a very important topic to promote peace in the world in 2008: the promotion of healthy families. A place to “experience some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them.” (Message of the 2008 World Peace Day)
    “For this reason,” the Holy Father said in his message, “the family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace.” The promotion of the family as the great school of peace and love will guarantee that our efforts to create a peaceful society will be successful.

    It is a tradition to make resolutions for a better year. Unfortunately, many of those resolutions are about material and superficial things: losing weight, home improvements, buying new clothes, etc.

    Let’s remember that the best resolutions are those that help us to improve our lives and make us better Catholics, better human beings and contribute to the well-being and peace of those around us.
Only the peace that comes from a renewed heart is able to spread peace, love and reconciliation to those around us, and transform our society.

    On this New Year’s Day I wish all the faithful of the archdiocese a 2008 filled with God’s blessings. I pray that the New Year’s resolutions will make this year, more than ever, an “Anno Domini,” a year of the Lord.
May the true Catholic spirit be in our hearts when we tell our loved ones “Happy New Year!”