Fr. Kevin Dillon is the Pastor of St. Boniface Martyr Parish, Sea Cliff, Long Island, NY.
With Christmas Day as far away as it can ever be people begin to look forward to the New Year.
The month of January is named after the Roman god, Janus, and he is often depicted looking forward and looking backward. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day this year is on a weekend, and a long weekend at that! Since the actual day is a Sunday, business and schools close Monday in observance of the holiday. With the arrival of New Year’s Day, there is certain let down that all the festivities of this special time of year are over and now we enter into the routine of January which can be cold and dreary.
The beginning of January, however, is the perfect time to reflect and ponder over the happenings of the previous year, and look forward to new beginnings and some changes for the coming year. Ask yourself what was one positive experience you had last year? What did you learn from it? If you could do anything differently, what would it be and why? Were there missed opportunities for growth or change? Did we place any limits on ourselves because of lack of confidence or courage?
You can’t. You will never. Just give up and call it a day. You aren’t good enough. These phrases were told to some pretty successful people throughout history, everyone from musicians, to actors and actresses to authors and television personalities. Among them are composers like Beethoven, whose teachers told him he was hopeless. Stephen King who had 30 rejections until he finally had his first book published and Lucille Ball who was considered a “B” list movie star and failed many times before she became a successful actress on the hit television series,
I Love Lucy. Lucky for us, they ignored the doubters and naysayers and became legendary giants in their own right for all they accomplished. Want to know who isn’t famous? Their belittlers who said they couldn’t.
If we are honest with ourselves, we too have probably been told we can’t, or we’re not good enough and unfortunately most of us have bought into this non-sense! Perhaps we have regrets about this, but it is never too late to change or start anew! In the first few days of this New Year take the time to reflect and ponder over your dreams and expectations for 2017. It’s human nature to give up, especially after failure but that is giving up too easily. If failure is embraced in the right fashion, it can serve as a learning experience for us. One of the traits of Christians is perseverance, or a stick to it mentality. Perseverance often leads to endurance and that makes us stronger. Think about the persistent widow in the Gospel. The Scriptures are filled with people who persevered and relied on GOD’S GRACE. Often persistence and endurance bear fruit; we just need to be patient, and maybe God is telling us something as well. After all, the only limits we really have are the ones place on ourselves.
HAPPY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES!
– Fr. Kevin
Fr. Kevin’s letter appears here weekly and in the St. Boniface Martyr Parish Bulletin
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