While January 1st is the beginning of a new year in the Calendar, it is not the beginning of our liturgical year, which begins on the first Sunday of Advent, but even so, New Year’s Day is seen as a time for setting new resolutions to break bad habits, build good ones, and generally have a “better year” than the one before.
On January 1, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. We can think of it as a sort of Catholic Mother’s Day, because as the Mother of God, Mary is also the Mother of the Church and all Her members (see Catechism of The Catholic Church – CCC 963 – 970).
Any resolution we make to better ourselves can be encouraged by looking to Mary for her example, advice, and assistance. She is not just our Mother in the historical sense of giving birth to Jesus, our Brother; she is our Mother in the here and now. Consider what French Jesuit Alexander de Rouville says of Mary in his book, The Imitation of Mary:
“… when we pray through the intercession of Mary, it is her high position and her dignity as God’s Mother that speak in our favour. Recall that God Himself chose to be subject to her on earth. Will He have less regard for her now that she reigns with Him in heaven? He has entrusted to her, as it were, the general disposition of all His blessings and it pleases Him to give us a share of them through her” (Rouville 287).
This New Year’s Day, take your cares to our Lord Jesus through His Mother’s intercession. We can be confident that the grace we receive at the Eucharist is sufficient for all our needs, and that every prayer we utter is heard and answered. It is God alone who enables us to become who He created us to be. Let us begin the year by asking Him for the grace we need to be our true selves, and thus to imitate Mary, who was fully herself in the truest sense.
Masses will be offered on New Year’s Day at 11am in The Church of The Immaculate Conception, Tenure and 12noon in The Church of St. Colmcille, Togher. All Welcome.
Togher Parish 