For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth…… For I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. (Isaiah 45: 17-18). As you begin the New Year, the Lord God promises you joy and delight! “My children! I love to make my temple within your heart an abode of joy and delight. I will wipe your tears and take away all your curses. I will lead you to showers of blessings in the year 2010”. Yes! He loves to lead us with kindness and concern like a loving father. “For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.”      (Psalm 48:14). He adopts and accepts us as his own children. “…. I will be their God and they will be my children”(Revelation 21:7).There is no need for you to pity yourselves saying, “I have no hope! No future! No one loves me; no one cares for me or helps me in any way, there is no one to understand me and be with me in my miserable condition”. We have our God who has adopted and accepted us as his own children. Let us share our burdens and problems with our Heavenly Father! Abiding in him you will be victorious (Romans 8:37) and fruitful (John 15:5) in every aspect of your life!  

TEARS BECOME JOYS:

Psalm 126:5 says, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.” According to this promise as you begin your year with a resolution to abide in Jesus through prayers and reflecting on the Word of God, all your fears and tears melt away like ice in sunlight. “So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22).

In 1994 Mr. John Lasrado had shared his life experience with me. His father had died when he was just 10 years of age. His mother was working as a maid abroad. He grew up in his uncle’s house. As he was missing the love of his mother, he started to call Mother Mary as his own mother. Through his devotion to Mother Mary, he was abiding in Jesus our Lord God. He went through great persecution form his cousins. Therefore he went to Mumbai after his SSLC. There he worked as a helper in a mechanic shop. He used to go daily for prayers in the church. With the help of the prayer group, he joined a night college and completed his graduation. Then he went to Kuwait and worked as an IT Manager. Through the intercession of Mother Mary, God blessed John more and more. He became a very influential person in his company. He gave jobs to his cousins and relatives in his company. Thus God made him prosper more and more. But when he got married and had beautiful loving children, he forgot the Lord God and His Providence. He stopped prayer, Rosary and Word of God. Then the Iraq – Kuwait War of 1992 broke out. Though he managed to send his wife and children to India by flight; he had to walk in the desert sand for 9 days to reach Jordan. On the way, he felt exhausted and tired; there was no food at all. His companions left him thinking he is dead. As he was about to die, he called out “Mother” and he could see Mother Mary walking towards him in the sand feeding him with food and water. When he woke up, he was refreshed and full of strength. The rosary he carried in his pocket was missing. He searched for it in the sand for an hour. When he found it, he was very glad. With the strength of that joy, he ran and joined his companion’s miles ahead of him and was rescued. He had come to tell how foolish it was to give up rosary prayers and union with God. Now he is again in Kuwait and very fervent in his devotion to Mother Mary and in reading the Holy Bible.

Yes my Beloved, the Lord God loves you. “Comfort, O Comfort my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1). “Does a mother forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child within her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15). Let us re-commit ourselves to our devout practices of rosary, morning and evening prayers, scripture reading and if possible even daily Holy Mass. And the New Year will be filled with God’s blessings.

AFFLICTIONS AS BLESSINGS:

“Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us and as many years we have seen evil.” (Psalm 90:15). According to the number of days or years we have gone through afflictions, God is going to bless us with gladness. Just say to Jesus, Lord I surrender every moment, every hour and every day of the year 2010 to your glory. Then you will see your afflictions transforming into blessings. “The Lord does not afflict us willingly or grieve anyone. (Lamentations 3:33). Although he causes grief, he will have compassion” (Lamentations 3:32). Why do we go through afflictions? “So that the genuineness of your faith - being more precious than gold, though perishable, is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Christ Jesus is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).

We live in a very sinful wicked world. We see unfaithfulness and faithlessness everywhere. ‘I’ is the centre of SIN. Sin makes people arrogant. They say S (yes) to Satan and ‘No’ to God. “I don’t need God, I am Self- Sufficient.” That is the beginning of the downfall of a wicked man. “...You have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

God allows afflictions in our life so that we overcome sin and its consequences. Mrs. Juliana had brought her 18 year old daughter Juliet to DCC for retreat. Juliet is very young lady. But she is intellectually not capable of doing anything by herself. Her mother meticulously looks after every need of hers.  “Is it not very cumbersome to take care of Juliet?” I had asked her mother. Her reply deeply touched my heart, “Juliet is a great blessing. Because of her I have come closer to God. Mother Theresa looked after thousands and millions of less fortunate people. God has blessed me to become like mother Theresa in my own little way.”

Struggles and afflictions make people despair. But not for us who have Jesus as our model who took upon himself death on the cross for the salvation of humanity. “For I am rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s affliction” (Colossians 1:24). The Lord is blessing your new year. Therefore all your failures, pains, sufferings and struggles will be a source of joy and spiritual strength for you!

LOSSES ARE PROFITS:

“And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10). Job was a devout man of God. Yet he lost all his wealth, health, children and honour. But God gave back all that and much more. This year 2010 is going to be a year of spiritual blessings for you. As you plan out your programs for the year based on the Word of God, He restores all your fortunes. “The Lord will open for you his rich store house, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in due season and bless all your undertakings.”  (Deuteronomy 28:12).

May the Lord bless you abundantly in the year 2010 and make you grow spiritually and in all aspects of your life. I wish you “A Prosperous New Year”.