A Prayer for the New Year . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR

"Grant us, O Lord:
The hope to envision new dreams;
The strength to rise above our limitations,
     our fears and whatever holds us down;
The courage to stand on our own, to stretch our imagination,
     and to experience being fully human, fully alive;
The faith to live our lives in your image and likeness.
Guide us, O Lord, this new year, every way, every day. Amen."

     "You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of. You don’t have charge of the constellations, but you do have charge of whether you read, develop new skills, and take new classes."

On Diligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ben Franklin, Poor Richard

"Diligence is the mother of good luck."

Life Long Struggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Ward Beecher

     "It is not what we read, but what we remember that makes us learned. It is not what we intend, but what we do that makes us useful. It is not a few faint wishes, but a life long struggle that makes us valiant."

Today is Unique . . . . . . . . Charles Swindoll, The Quest for Character, p. 191

     "Today is unique! It has never occurred before and it will never be repeated. At midnight it will end, quietly, suddenly, totally. Forever. But the hours between now and then are opportunities with eternal possibilities."

Laughter is a Leap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G.K. Chesterton

     "It is really a natural trend to lapse into taking oneself too seriously because it’s the easiest thing to do. Solemnity and seriousness flow out of us naturally. But laughter is a leap into the light. It is easy to be heavy, hard to be light. And never forget that Satan fell by force of gravity."

Keep Your Zest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Gardner

On Encouragement . . . . . . . Charles M. Schwab, First president of U.S. Steel Corp.

     "I have never seen a person who could do real work except under the stimulus of encouragement and enthusiasm and the approval of the people for whom one is working."

Accept Responsibility  . . . . . . . Fr. John Powell, SJ, Christian Vision

     "The way we see, interpret and react to whatever happens to us is the important thing. Sometimes the worst thing that may happen to us can bring about the best thing that could ever happen in us. And we must assume this responsibility for what happens in us.…for our attitudes. Only if we accept this responsibility can we grow through the various circumstances of life."

     "Every person is called to be a child of light and to walk in the darkness of faith. To cling to the light is to cling to the love of God and to love and service of neighbor, to put off the darkness of self-interest and to mirror the virtues of Christ. To live in faith is to accept the ambiguity of life — to search for God’s will day by day, to be patient with uncertainty, and in all the shifting circumstances of life to put our absolute trust in God, who is all-wise and all-loving. Only in heaven, present to the unapproachable light of God, will we be fully children of light."

Have to Repent . . . . . . . . . Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
                                                                     MLK QUOTES: The Best Things Dr. Martin Luther King Ever Said

     "Be heartily earnest, believing in what you are doing. Persevere in spite of hindrances of discouragements and impossibilities. Add resolution and concentration to your natural ability."

"Stress is something you get
from climbing up molehills."

"Making It Happen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Paul Conn

     "Epiphany — a word we little use — but could or should…The Irish writer James Joyce used ‘epiphany’ to signify a change that occurs in a person as a result of some insight, something one learned that day. Christ’s Epiphany is to change us; it says God is in our midst and available.

     There are epiphanies all about us. The Lord reveals himself to us in many ways in a day but…we may not be prepared to see Him.…He reveals himself in the unexpectedly good thing that suddenly comes upon us.

     It’s not luck, or good fortune, but God’s love revealed for us, to us…He is there where we do not expect Him; He comes in the casual, the ordinary. No need to travel far, as the Magi did. But if we are unwilling to meet Him in the unexpected or even the expected, we may miss Him."

Be the Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carol Conner

"In your small circles of influence,
choose to be the peace you seek."

     "When the Bible says holy it means ‘separate’ or ‘different.’ The word implies being healthy and whole in a world where much is un-healthy and fragmented. The English phrase hale and hearty sums up true holiness.

     Holiness includes such concepts as humor and laughter, compassion and understanding, and the capacity to forgive and be forgiven, to love and be loved. That’s holiness.

     Holy families are not free from conflict, nor do they never hurt one another. Holiness in families, rather, comes from learning to forgive and to be reconciled, and learning to face our problems and do something about them.

     In family life, holy means striving to surrender to God’s light within us when the darkness around us seems overwhelming. It means struggling day after day to bring creative order — if only a bit of it — to the chaos in our lives. When we work at cultivating forgiveness, reconciliation, and community, we embody God’s holy will in the context of family life.

     A family embodies holiness by striving to be ‘hale and hearty,’ not by trying to be ‘perfect’ according to a set of other worldly standards."

Doctrine of Election . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Msgr. Arthur Tonne

     A preacher was once asked to explain the doctrine of election. He said, "Well, it is this way: the Lord is always voting for the person, and the devil is always voting against; then, the person himself votes, and breaks the tie."