NEW YEAR'S EVE

 

New Year's Eve is always a bittersweet time. "Out with the old; in with the new!" Yet even the hard times that we experienced over the last year often had something about them that we wish to remember. That's one reason why it seems so appropriate to mark the New Year by celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Saint Luke tells us that, after being visited by the shepherds after the birth of Christ, "Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart." Yet only a few verses later, Simeon tells Mary, "thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed." The mystery of our salvation encompasses both joy and sorrow, and no one exemplifies that truth more than the Mother of God herself.