A New Year has dawned. It is God’s gift to us. What we do with the year will

depend on us. It does not promise us Heaven on earth. Rather it promises us here on

earth something else; God’s presence and action in our lives that will usher in lasting

peace which the world does not know.

             The New Year may not eliminate evil from the world. For there will still be

poverty, financial meltdown, brazen insensitivity, treacherous attacks on innocent and

vulnerable lives, discrimination, persecution in the name of religion and cold and lonely

seasons where love is far away. But everything becomes possible when we experience

God’s presence and solidarity. We no longer walk alone, God is always there. May He

break through the darkness of our lives and help us to be a ray of His light to illumine

the world with peace, joy, love and forgiveness.