A new year, a new life!

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Divine Intimacy:

"This feast (The Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord) coincides with the beginning of the year; the first drops of Jesus' Blood seal and consecrate each new year, making it really the 'annus Domini,' the year of Our Lord, which it actually is, since time belongs to God. Our life too is God's; it has been redeemed and sanctified by the Blood of Christ.

Let us, then, begin the year by circumcising our hearts, for as St. Ambrose says, 'He who has been circumcised of every vice will be judged worthy of the Lord's attention....See how all the events which followed one another in the Old Testament prefigured what was to happen later, for the circumcision also represents purification from sins' (Roman Breviary).

A new year, a new life! a new life indeed! -- for if we circumcise in ourselves the 'old man' with his vices and passion, the 'Christian' can grow in us: we can become new creatures, purified by the Blood of Christ, vivified and nourished by His grace, so that it may no longer be we who live, but Christ who lives in us. The new year which begins today will acquire value only if lived in this light. Only by this daily circumcision of the heart will grace triumph in us, thus making the Christ-life an ever-increasing reality in our souls."

"O Jesus...I think of this new year as a white page given to me by Your Father, on which He will write, day by day, whatever His divine good pleasure has planned. I shall now write at the top of the page with complete confidence: Domine, fac de me sicut vis, Lord do with me what You will, and at the bottom I already write my Amen to all the proposals of Your divine will. Yes Lord, yes to all the joys, the sorrows, the graces, the hardships prepared for me, which You will reveal to me day by day. Grant that my Amen may be the Paschal Amen, always followed by the Alleluia, uttered wholeheartedly, in in the joy of a complete gift. Give me Your love and Your grace, and I shall be rich enough" (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

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