"Happy New Year" Dec 30, 2021

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! For many of us, the changing of the calendar this year will be very welcome. All the same, I would be remiss if I did not give thanks for the gifts of 2021. It was a year which will be remembered for a continuing pandemic, tragedy, division, and hurricane survival but the gift was in the response of service and sacrifice by many people that sustained us through a difficult time and, ultimately, set us on a path to recovery.

I think of the dedicated commitment shown by our clergy, parish staff, and volunteers who worked tirelessly to ensure our Parish and our many important ministries such as educating our school children and assisting those in need would carry on.  I think of the devotion to duty of medical personnel, first responders, storekeepers and supermarket workers, schoolteachers, cleaning personnel, transport workers, and others who have kept our communities operating and safe. These are the people who brought blessing to the year. They met the moment generously by answering the call given to each of us: to share God’s love and mercy with those we encounter to preserve the common good. I think of the sacrifices of parishioners and community members, many in uncertain financial situations, who continued to offer needed assistance to the Church, recognizing the importance of our common mission and the support in hope it offers to so many people in so many ways. The courage, perseverance, and faith we see in the acts of these people are things to carry with us into the new year.

So, as we enter into 2022 on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, who better to guide us? We can learn a great deal from Mary, a woman who knew that only in prayer and in conversation with the God who had asked her to be the Mother of His Son, would she be able to be faithful to what she had been called. We are told in the Gospel that “she kept all these things in her heart.” We would do well to follow her. In her heart was where she would meet God and seek His will for her as she carried out her mission to be the Mother of God.
At the end of 2021, a challenging year for both our nation, our city, and our Church, the model of Mary offers a wonderful guide for our year ahead. Immerse yourself in God’s love and respond to His presence and grace by bringing that love to others. Share how God is working in your life with those around you and resolve to let God shape your heart to be more generous and loving. With eyes of faith and hope, you will know God’s presence in your daily life, and it will bring you peace.

As the new year begins, let us resolve to enter it mindful of the good we have received. Like Mary, in humble prayer, let us ask God to guide us in witnessing to the Good News of Jesus in our world seeking the good in others, and striving where we can to help make the lives of others better.

God is with us. That is our hope; that is what we celebrate at Christmas. As the calendar changes, may this truth rest in your hearts bringing you peace and blessing.

Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School