Agenda 2016
Fr. Mervyn Carapiet
For many the New Year period is a very special time – a time of new hope and making New Year resolutions. What have you decided to make new in 2016? Are you going to drift into the New Year thinking and acting as you always have, or will this New Year be different? The only change that will take place in your life is what you will take responsibility for. We should not enter the new year carrying a hangover from the old !
I challenge you to look on this year in a new way. Be positive. Accept your life as a gift, giving you an opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives in a meaningful and useful way. Could you make people and their needs a priority for the coming year? We live in a fast moving and competitive world, where success and the pursuit of money and material things have assumed almost ultimate importance so that other people and their needs are scarcely recognizable.
Be good to yourself – giving yourself time to relax and care for yourself. Listen to the messages your body sends you. Be positive about your successes. Be gentle with yourself and with the projects and plans that have not succeeded for you. Refrain from negativity. Be gracious in defeat. Give time in your life to your God, for him to influence your thinking, your spiritual growth and help you appreciate that you are being held in the palm of his hand.
Be good to people. Respect their dignity as sons and daughters of God. Remember how fragile we all can be in the vulnerable moments of our life. Have a special place for family and close friends. Have an eye, ear and heart for the losers in life. Jesus said: “What you did to the least of my people you did to me.” Never underestimate the effects of the smallest acts of kindness for people. This reminds me of a story told recently at the funeral of a teacher. The man was terminally ill. Just the week before he died he received a card from a past pupil. It read: “Mr. Fitzpatrick, thanks for teaching me how to tie my shoe laces. You never forget the person who taught you how to tie your laces.” This good deed took place thirty years ago, but its memory was still fresh in this past pupil’s mind.
Many opportunities will come your way in this coming year to be good to people. May we be alert to these special moments and have the generosity to respond to them. People’s lives will be better because we passed their way.
May the coming year be one of increased riches of grace—hearing His voice more clearly, knowing His heart more deeply, resting in His love more fully, trusting His care more completely, walking His pathway more peacefully, knowing His presence more intimately, blessed by His goodness more abundantly.
And in all things, may you know the shalom peace of God—encouraging you to move forward, empowering you to boldly take each step, greeting you as you turn a new corner, calming your heartbeat as you walk through dark valleys, softening each footstep as you climb rugged mountains, and increasing your courage as you follow your Shepherd wherever He leads.
You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness become a lush pasture, and the hillsides blossom with joy.
Psalm 65:11-12
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