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Exploring the word

01 Jan 2020 - Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord; Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Cycle A

There’s no intrinsic reason why a new year should be any different from an old one. While we’re conscious of having turned a page on a whole new calendar, New Year's Day is really no more than just another sunrise. Still, we greet each new year with hope for the chance to be born again to new life and possibilities. We pray for a peaceful world. We anticipate new beginnings. We make resolutions to quit smoking, exercise more, eat better, make better decisions for ourselves and those we love. This could be the year we finally keep our promises. If we look back at past years and former resolutions that began bravely and ended miserably, we might be discouraged. Starting over in a new town, we may wind up with the same old problems if we change only the outer circumstances and not the inner person. Newness of life is not achieved by rearranging the deck chairs while remaining aboard a ship bound for disaster. If we drink too much, we have to give up the booze, period. If we cheat, we have to come clean and go straight. If we’ve been tepid in our family life, we have to resolve to commit. If we’re morally lazy, we have to pledge to be ambitious for virtue. If we don’t pray, now’s the time to start. If we’re depressed or anxious, we should seek professional support and guidance. If our goals are fuzzy, we should seek spiritual direction and discernment. If we’re lonely, we can seek community in parish involvement, faith-sharing, or volunteer work. Why today? Why not some other day? Precisely because we live in a human society that offers mutually established markers for the measurement of time and progress. Now is the time; now is always the time, if we understand anything about the magnificent present tense of the “I AM” God we worship. God blesses today because today is where we always find ourselves. Today is the most important day of our lives because it’s the day in which we live and move and have our being. Yesterday’s gone; tomorrow is no sure thing. Today is the only day in which you can make a difference. So may the Lord bless us and keep us, shine the divine face on us, and be gracious to us this day and the coming year. And may Mary, Mother of God and mother of the church, surround us with her nurturing love and guidance. We can follow her example, pondering our present circumstances in our hearts and seeking understanding of where we stand and where we might yet be led. Take time to determine today what needs changing and resolve to take that first step into a brave and blessed new future. Related scripture links Infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke: Matt. 1:18-2:23; Luke 1:26-56, 2:1-52 The Woman in John: John 2:1-12, 19:25-27 Mary at Pentecost: Acts 1:13-14, 2:1-4 Catechism links Natures of Jesus: CCC 464-469 Mary, Mother of God: CCC 144; 484-507; 721-726 Mary, Mother of the Church: CCC 773; 829; 963-972

Authors Alice Camille

new beginnings new year resolutions today

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Exploring the word

01 Jan 2023 - Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord; Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Cycle A

There’s no intrinsic reason why a new year should be any different from an old one. While we’re conscious of having turned a page on a whole new calendar, New Year's Day is really no more than just another sunrise. Still, we greet each new year with hope for the chance to be born again to new life and possibilities. We pray for a peaceful world. We anticipate new beginnings. We make resolutions to quit smoking, exercise more, eat better, make better decisions for ourselves and those we love. This could be the year we finally keep our promises. If we look back at past years and former resolutions that began bravely and ended miserably, we might be discouraged. Starting over in a new town, we may wind up with the same old problems if we change only the outer circumstances and not the inner person. Newness of life is not achieved by rearranging the deck chairs while remaining aboard a ship bound for disaster. If we drink too much, we have to give up the booze, period. If we cheat, we have to come clean and go straight. If we’ve been tepid in our family life, we have to resolve to commit. If we’re morally lazy, we have to pledge to be ambitious for virtue. If we don’t pray, now’s the time to start. If we’re depressed or anxious, we should seek professional support and guidance. If our goals are fuzzy, we should seek spiritual direction and discernment. If we’re lonely, we can seek community in parish involvement, faith-sharing, or volunteer work. Why today? Why not some other day? Precisely because we live in a human society that offers mutually established markers for the measurement of time and progress. Now is the time; now is always the time, if we understand anything about the magnificent present tense of the “I AM” God we worship. God blesses today because today is where we always find ourselves. Today is the most important day of our lives because it’s the day in which we live and move and have our being. Yesterday’s gone; tomorrow is no sure thing. Today is the only day in which you can make a difference. So may the Lord bless us and keep us, shine the divine face on us, and be gracious to us this day and the coming year. And may Mary, Mother of God and mother of the church, surround us with her nurturing love and guidance. We can follow her example, pondering our present circumstances in our hearts and seeking understanding of where we stand and where we might yet be led. Take time to determine today what needs changing and resolve to take that first step into a brave and blessed new future. Related scripture links Infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke: Matt. 1:18-2:23; Luke 1:26-56, 2:1-52 The woman in John: John 2:1-12, 19:25-27 Mary at Pentecost: Acts 1:13-14, 2:1-4 Catechism links Natures of Jesus: CCC 464-469 Mary, Mother of God: CCC 144; 484-507; 721-726 Mary, Mother of the Church: CCC 773; 829; 963-972

Authors Alice Camille

new year new beginnings today

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Featured Exploring the Word

14 Sep 2025 - Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Cycle C

Teachers should know more than their students. I think most of us hope that the people who are training us in any capacity have more expertise than those whom they are mentoring. But we've probably all taken courses in which we found out that our teachers were posers, or we've held jobs in which our supervisors had less expertise than we did. Nicodemus has such a credibility gap. He's a teacher of the people, a member of the Sanhedrin. Yet after hearing Jesus, Nicodemus realizes he's discovered a teacher who knows more than he does. And when Jesus tells him that the way to all truth includes being "born again," Nicodemus misunderstands him, imagining an impossible second physical birth. Nicodemus should not have been so uncomprehending: Judaism itself expected a second birth from those attracted to its teachings. The fact that Nicodemus questions this image implies that he's not been doing his homework. Yet there's something redeemable about Nicodemus. He keeps coming back to Jesus even though under cover of darkness, afraid to be known as a disciple. He may be ignorant, but at least he knows that he does not know—which puts him far ahead of the unthinking mobs in the streets. Jesus tells him that second birth means that he has to start over, from scratch, a new beginning, and Nicodemus is prepared to try. This puts him head and shoulders above the multitudes who listen to Jesus politely for an afternoon, chalk up the experience as amusing or interesting, and return to their routines. Those who stay, like Nicodemus, will have their ignorance challenged, their understanding broadened. They'll learn that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. They'll come to know that Jesus doesn't come to judge and condemn the world, but to rescue it. Those who hang around for the long haul will come to experience the sign at the center of great mystery: the cross of Christ. They will come to appreciate that a second birth is also a form of death to the old way of seeing and believing and behaving. The cross changes everything. It makes the strange specter of death into an ally toward fuller, more abundant life. Saint Paul, the best posthumous pupil Jesus ever had, seemed to be born again in a single encounter with the Risen Lord. He perceived how humility leads naturally to glory, how death is the doorway to life. Paul, who, unlike his fellow Pharisee Nicodemus, probably never met the human Jesus nor saw the cross of Jesus, unpacked its tremendous significance and confessed his allegiance to its great saving mystery. If Nicodemus had been born again, he might have crept out of the shadows and become a memorable teacher of the faith. We might be reading his letters to the church today. Related scripture links The cross: Matt. 10:38; Mark 8:34; 16:24; Luke 9:23; 14:27; 1 Cor. 1:17-18, 22-25; 2:2; Gal. 3:1; 5:11; 6:14; Eph. 2:14-18; Phil. 3:18; Col. 2:14 Catechism links The way of the cross: CCC 422-423; 440; 444; 457-458; 661-664; 679; 703-706; 2130 Jesus the slave: CCC 201; 411; 434; 449; 472; 602; 612-618; 635; 705; 713; 876; 908; 1224; 2667; 2812 Adapted from a previously published Exploring the word.

Authors Alice Camille

nicodemus teachers new beginnings second birth

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