The Hope of the New Year Begins!

When the Christmas carols are all sung
When the Epiphany star is at its brightest
When the Magi returned safely to their home
When the shepherds are back tending their sheep
When the angels have returned to the heavens

The work of the New Year begins – 2022
To welcome the refugees
To feed the hungry children
To work for clean water everywhere
To help strengthen communities
To pray for peace among all nations.    

Poetry adaptation by Donna Day SL, with a tremendous tip of the hat to American author Howard Washington Thurman

The New Year, 2022 is almost here. It is a wonderful time to think about the hope we have for the new year. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Is: 43:19)

What “new thing” will God be calling us all to in 2022?  We can never tell when a stranger, a neighbor, an idea or a new thought is grace showing itself to us as one small part of God’s weaving the world together in love. A few, short days ago, on Christmas morning, we prayed for a Savior. And we prayed, as Mary and Joseph did, as the shepherds did and as the Magi did, that we don’t miss God’s coming to us in ways we can scarcely imagine. We will never be outside the reach of God’s love. Our job is to be ready for the “new thing” promised to those who believe. 

The Loretto Community — the Sisters, Co-members, Staff and Loretto Volunteers — pray that this New Year will be for all a time of the showing forth of that love that holds all of us in the divine promise of God’s faithfulness and grace. We wish you peace in this New Year.

This week on Loretto’s Facebook page, we offer you a sprinkling of New Year’s wishes and resolutions from our Loretto members.