Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, persons highly favored by God and playing a significant role in our salvation. The first reading, Sirocco 3: 26, 12-14, speaks to us of the importance of how one relates to one's parents and how parents relate to their children! Paul asks us, in the second reading, Colossians 3: 12-21, to "[p]ut on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another; if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so much you also do. And over all these put on love, that is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful."
There is no better counsel for the New Year! We do not need to look for any other New Year's Resolutions. If we read this passage from Colossians every evening and examine our behaviors that day in light of this passage, we are well on our way to experiencing the peace that only God can give! In that peace is the strength we need to begin anew the next day as "God's chosen ones, holy and beloved," putting on "heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another." It is in peace that we are given the wisdom to forgive others as God has forgiven us. It is the peace of Christ that opens our hearts to God's love within us, "the bond of perfection."
Let us pray for this peace that God wants to give us each day and each night.
This is excellent! I'm copying it to put on my refrigerator and in my bedroom. Bless you for this particular passage.
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