DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR JANUARY 2008.

+A Meditation for the New Year and for the month of Our Lord’s Sacred Humanity+

Let us learn from the Communion of Saints to live in hope. Those who are now at rest were once like ourselves. They were once weak,faulty,sinful; they had their burdens and hindrances,their slumbering and weariness,their failures and their falls. But now they have overcome. Their life was once homely and commonplace. Their day ran out as ours. Morning and noon and night came and went to them as to us. Their life too was as lonely and sad as yours. Little fretful circumstances and frequent disturbing changes wasted away their hours as yours. There is nothing in your life that was not in theirs; there was nothing in theirs but may be also in your own. They have overcome,each one,and one by one; each in his turn,when the day came and God called him to the trial. And so shall you likewise.
(Cardinal Manning)
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Well,so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes – some have got broken – and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt and the children must be got ready for school. There are enough left-overs to do,warmed up,for the rest of the week – not that we have much appetite,having drunk such a lot,stayed up so late,attempted – quite unsuccessfully – to love all our relatives, and in general grossly overestimated our powers. Once again as in previous years we have seen the Vision and failed to do more than entertain it as an agreeable Possibility. Once again we have sent Him away,begging though to remain His disobedient servant, the promising child who cannot keep his word for long. The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory……….To those who have seen the Child,however dimly,
however incredulously, the Time Being is,in a sense,the most trying time of all.
(W.H.Auden)
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Bishop Anthony writes: Auden’s “promising child” is,of course,US – every one of us,we who are the disobedient servants although we do wish to be obedient! That is why Auden calls us “promising”.
The unbelieving world has already moved on from Christmass jollities and back to its own selfish and godless interests. But what of us? The festivities are indeed over but our Christian duty is to keep our dear Redeemer’s Nativity alive by taking the Christmass message with us into this New Year – the Nativity which was (is) the first part in God’s plan for our Redemption, the “opening scene” of the New Covenant. Even the saints,as Cardinal Manning reminds us,had their weaknesses and faults. Yet they strived to please God and to do His Will, and that is what we must do: strive to be ever faithful and to proclaim Jesus to our agnostic and suffering world. Every new year brings us joy and new hope because we are Christ’s servants and the children of light – and Alleluja is our constant song.
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Let us pray: Almighty God,help me always to do those works which lead to true Life. Let me share in the work of the Most Holy Trinity on earth and attain at last unto the fullness of the heavenly life.

And a passing thought:

We must above all be concerned with the interests of God and look after our neighbour’s good.
(Saint John Bosco)

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