A New Year’s Day Meditation

“In these final days of the old year and at the beginning of the new, we like to wish each other a good year. To tradesmen, neighbors, everyone we meet…we say Happy New Year! They wish the same to us and we thank them.

But, what do most people mean by Happy New Year? Doubtless they mean a year free from illness, pain, trouble or worry; that instead, everyone may smile on you, that you flourish, that you make plenty of money, that the taxman doesn’t get you, that you get a rise in salary, that prices fall, and that the news is good every morning. In short, that nothing unpleasant may happen to you.

It is good to wish these material good things for ourselves and others so long as they do not make us veer away from our final goal. The new year will bring us our share of happiness and our share of trouble, and we don’t know how much of each. A good year for a Christian is one in which both joys and sorrows have helped him to love God a little more. It is not a year that comes, supposing it were possible, full of natural happiness that leaves God to one side. A good year is one in which we have served God and our neighbor better, even if, on the human plane, it has been a complete disaster.

Any year can be the best year if we make use of the graces that God keeps in store for us and which can turn to good the greatest misfortunes.

For the year just beginning, God has prepared all the help we need to make it a good year. So let’s not waste even a single day.”