Sunday, December 31, 2023
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Last Day of the Year
New Year’s Eve
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
One day at a time
Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so shall your descendants be.
I like to do several things on the last day.
I will cut my fingernails (although that will last just a week). Margaret will cut my hair (and she will cut it again in a month). I will add up my counseling appointments for all of 2023. I do that every month, but this time it’s for Keeps. Or rather, for Taxes. And I will write my last haiku of the year.
Just one more haiku
Ev’ry day the sun rises
But no more this year!
But of course for most of us this is not the last last day. Tomorrow the sun will also rise. Tomorrow I expect to awaken from deep sleep and stretch and yawn, and pray the Lord’s Prayer. Good morning, Jesus, happy new year!
As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Today on December 31 I’ll reflect a bit on 2023 and plan some for 2024. But probably not much. At breakfast yesterday Margaret asked the boys if they’d rather hang out with somebody who made good plans but had to stick to them, or another person who just wanted to have fun without many expectations. All of us go back and forth, I guess. But today I will reflect more than I plan. That just seems right to me, since God’s in charge. Isn’t he?
I play the part of God in my life every day, though. When I had trouble last week finding a collision repair shop that would accept our insurance, I couldn’t sleep. I tried to breathe deep and trust God, but that just lasted a moment and then I was thrown back in my ever-circling thoughts, nervous and nauseous but afraid to make more calls and get rejected yet again. I confessed my fear, but the confession disappeared too, into the mist.
Could be I’m less confident as I get older?
My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives.
And really, Chris, Marc and Andi take good care of us. They volunteer to help us often, in all kinds of ways. And we say thank you! But it’s hard to know if and when we should not try something we could do just a few years ago.
When Jesus’ parents had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
It’s a perfect day to celebrate the Holy Family. When they returned to Nazareth it was the last day of the first part of Jesus’ life. Tomorrow it would be the first day of the rest of his life. Now he would bloom into an adult.
The child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
Our family too! We are all branches on the Jesus vine. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. And we are all forgiven, so we can begin again. Don’t stay up too late tonight. But when you do, smile and ask God to give you good, deep, binding, beautiful dreams.
 (Sirach 3, Genesis 15, Psalm 128, Psalm 105, Colossians 3, Hebrews 11, Hebrews 1, Luke 2)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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