Happy New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!...to my sisters & brothers in Christ,
I pray that you are blessed and that this New Year brings abundant joy to us all. I had a classmate who used to argue that “time” was just a human construct, that it doesn’t really exist except in our minds (He has a degree in physics.) I used to disagree, at least on a very practical and experiential level. While it may be true that a “new” year is an artificial construction as our planet continues to hurtle around the sun. Just look in the mirror from time to time and you can see that something is definitely happening. However, it is also true that one person’s 70 is another person’s 50. Age is often what we make of it. So too is joy.
Our emotional state is often of our own making. We can put ourselves in a funk, or we can simply decide to be happier, if not outright happy. Perhaps a worthy New Year’s resolution would be to decide to live a happier life. Try to avoid thinking that just upset you. Try watching less news and more comedies. Spend more time with friends. When you are with them make sure the conversation is positive. Stop the gossip and complaining. Talk about things that excite you, things that you like. Spend more time doing a hobby or volunteering to help someone. When you look back on each day I pray you have fewer regrets and more happy memories.
Let us also pray that we can come together more as a nation, and work together to solve our problems. Let us pray that we can find an end to Covid-19 and that masks & social-distancing do not become the “new normal.” One good thing to come out of this is that most of us have gotten much better at things like Zoom. So, another things we can commit ourselves to is spending more time reaching out to family, friends, & neighbors, especially those who are lonely. More often than not, happiness takes work. So let us all spend more time in this coming year to truly make it a “Happy New Year!”
I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who had a part to play in our Advent and/or Christmas liturgies, from decorating to liturgical ministries to working behind the scenes. I also want to thank again everyone who helped with our outreach, especially the Christmas Store and Giving Tree. God bless you all.
In the Redeemer,
Fr. Rick
P.S. I would like to know if any parishioners are:
• professional or serious-amateur photographers
• would like to do more, with a DSLR or Mirrorless, any young people who are seriously interested
• photographers who use Adobe Lightroom
Drop me an email with “photography” in the subject.