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updated 11:54 AM UTC, Mar 20, 2024

A baby calls us to smile – A New Year & Newness - 2016

New Year opens to us new possibilities and it is up to us to grab it and live it to the full.

In reality there are moments in our lives in the last year, may be for few of us even now, we might have felt that we have reached a stand still point and no not where to go and how to live. There are unresolved core-issues that refuse to go away from us.

For all these challenges New Year is the time to try new ways, speak a new language, attempt a new friendship, take a new initiative to find a good job opportunity, try again to repair the broken relationship and become little more optimistic in our fraternal living. We got these inspirations to try in this New Year:

Count the blessings:

Most often mind tends to see the negative side of every person and realities. So it is good to attempt to count the blessings we had through every person we have met and above all the blessings we have received in our lives. When we begin to make a list of the blessings we have it is amazing and we cannot but thank the Creator and others who were instrumental to have those gifts and blessings

Never Give up on people:

One of the lovely messages coming from Christmas is that God left the heavens to try again to redeem and renew the humanity by becoming a simple baby in a manger. He who was great and powerful became a fragile human being to teach us the meaning of simplicity and the true happiness. Brother Francis of Assisi, the patron of Ecology was moved by the incarnational humility of God and started to live a little more simpler life to imitate that Poor Little Master Jesus. Thus a new wisdom dawned, to teach people that God tries a new way of transforming us by being poor among us to avail His grace to all who seek him without any condition. If so let us keep aside our pride of being so good, judging others as gone cases or stay away from the all knowing attitudes that secludes somebody. Pope Francis in this week's Angelus message invited us to meditate on the Baby Jesus. This baby is fragile needs our attention and this child will make us joyful because he is with us.

Try Contemplation:

As we have mentioned earlier try to contemplate on the compassionate eyes of God. It could be done by trying to be faithful for silent meditation for minimum of 30 minutes. This could be done by allowing God's mercy and love filled eyes to descend on us and take hold of us. We need to be there just let that loving gaze to permeate our being and filling us with his disposition. This according to Br. Jaime, will have deeper impact on being that we can be transformed to imitate the author of that gaze our Jesus the Compassionate Healer.

Commit to the fraternal living:

Result of true contemplation is transformation of oneself to become a cosmic brother and sister to envelop the entire humanity and nature in love. For us Capuchins the gift of true contemplation is commitment to fraternal living by sharing all that we have with our brothers and do things together. In this individualistic world true spiritual people are commissioned to create a new humanity of mutual sharing, respect the dignity of the poor and jointly transform the hearts of people to live in harmony with one another.

Best wishes to have new dreams and hopes for the New Year!

Charles Alphonse & Jaime Rey Ofm Cap.,