January 2015
Reflections of God's Goodness
New Beginnings are life giving. We are energized by an opportunity to start anew, with fresh ideas and focus. It is why we celebrate the New Year and why we tend to become reflective and engage in resolution-making! We want to better ourselves!
Once again, a New Year has dawned. How will I change in the coming weeks and months? How will the world change? Will anything change? What goals will bring about the changes in myself and others that I’d like to see?
When I think about what I might like to see happen, I envision a kinder, gentler world. A place where people are built up, cared for, encouraged. What would happen if we decided to set some faith goals — some goals to draw us closer to the Lord and to His people?
Pope Francis challenges us to examine how we live. He calls us to aCulture of Encounter.
He says our world is experiencing a profound poverty of relationships. People are too busy seeking career recognition, pursuing their own plans and entertaining themselves to really see the face of the people in their lives.
It wasn’t long ago that another voice spoke to us about these very things. Mother Teresa said, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”
It’s not that there isn’t lots of communication going on. Parents are laying down the rules. Spouses are sharing information about the grocery list, bosses tell employees of the work that needs to be done and ‘friends’ share everything on Facebook. However, there is a lack of “communion”, of real connection. We are not looking at one another. We are not seeing the need in the person we meet.
In this New Year, let us look at one another with spiritual eyes, seeing the goodness God has placed there. Let us see what the other sees and hear what the other hears. Let us love one another and say with Pope John XXIII…
I have looked into your eyes.
I have put my heart near your heart.
This is holy ground, bearing the seeds of new relationships and deeper understanding, as we stand together before our God.
May the God of new beginnings bless us with the grace of spiritual eyes to see beneath the surface of every life and open our hearts to reach out in trust and love.
Happy New Year,
Sister Mary Ann Barnhorn
Director of Development
