Happy new year to all. The new year offers us a new beginning and so a new or renewed hope. It offers us a chance to say goodbye to the things of the past. The new year is a beginning and an end, and so a liminal moment, a moment of transition or crossing over from one thing to another. As we continue on the journey of this life, we get to choose what we will lay down and what we will take up as we cross over the boundary marker between 2022 and 2023. Take some time to think about that. Take some time in the resting space between what was and what will be. What has been for you that needs to be honored and laid down? What will be for you that you now need to take up? The former may feel more sure to you than the latter, but spend some time with your thoughts.

Qoheleth (Hebrew for teacher) is his work Ecclesiastes tells us that there are seasons and times for all things. The cycles and seasons of nature confirm this. It is a natural law that things come and go. Do not try to resuscitate that which has had its season in the sun. We miss the new life that is being birthed when we do that. Wisdom tells us that there is a time for all things under heaven and wisdom tells us that there is a time for letting things go and taking things up. At the end of our mortal lives we will lay down this life and take up our eternal life. Before then we have many opportunities for laying down and taking up. The new year is just one socially contrived but still important marker in time where we can be intentional in our discernment of what to lay down and what to take up.

Rather than making a resolution for the new year, just rest for a moment or longer and think. Think about what needs to be laid down and no longer carried. Think about what needs to be taken up. Think about what will remain with you as your companion. You have God’s permission to let go of what has come to an end and to take up what is life giving.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. - Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+