St. Augustine, Florida at Christmastime bob traupman 2007
NEW YEAR’S DAY 2016
Where are we, this New Year’s Day 2016, my friends?
Are we better off than we were a year ago?
What will 2016 bring for us?
Are we prepared for whatever the year will bring?
Will the economy get better or worse?
Will I keep my job? Get a raise? Be able to pay my mortgage and bills?
Will some crisis happen that will affect our country, our state?
Who will be our next president?
Do we realize that “We never know” . . . what the next moment will bring?
Pope Francis has declared this year an extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.
To tear down the walls of that separate us from one another: to have mercy and receive mercy.
Who doesn’t need a little mercy in their lives? Don’t you?
Try offering some mercy towards others this year.
And so I pray . . . .
Give us hope, Lord, this New Year’s Day.
A realistic hope that we might be a little kinder,
a little less self-centered,
a little more willing to go the extra mile for someone, even for a stranger.
We’re also in need of your mercy, Lord.
You are the all Merciful One.
That is why you sent your Son into our world to live among us and die for us.
Help us to be merciful too.
Give us the strength to be ready for whatever may come.
Give us the grace to be truly thankful, truly humble this New Year’s morning.
This is my prayer, Lord, for me, for our country, for our world.
And now, may we pray as St. Francis taught us . . .
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen!
May it be so! may it be so!
And now here’s this prayer sung by Angelina at Assisi. CLICK HERE. Be sure to turn up your speakers and enter full screen.
Father Bob's Reflections 