Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas: A New Beginning

Lose Weight. Get Organized. Spend Less. Start . . . tomorrow. After all, New Year’s Eve is about recollecting. Tomorrow the resolutions presently percolating will be put into action. We will be better—thinner, healthier, tidier—but what about today?

Today is an end. But, in the midst of countdowns and retrospectives, it is also all about beginnings. “In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God . . . all things came to be through him . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

The life that brought all of creation into being is the life that shines in each one of us. When we look back at all that this year has held, that life is the grace we see. It shimmers beautifully. It has drawn us into relationship and calls us to live lives that radiate faith, hope, and love. If we can give ourselves to that call, the Word can take on flesh in us.

Fortunately, we get a chance to do that each and every day. Today is a new beginning. There’s no need to wait until tomorrow. We know the Truth; we have encountered Christ. We’ve been given new life, and so we can’t help but live, letting God’s creative love flow through us each day. It’s not a matter of year’s end or New Year’s resolutions. Today is a new day. So, like every day we are blessed to live, let us embrace it with creative love, sharing the fullness of our being and trusting that our Creator will be, and has been, with us from the very start.

Reflected by Sr. Colleen Gibson from Give Us This Day