January 1, 2010
Feastday of St. Basil the Great
New Year’s Day
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Happy New Year! EuthceV Ston Neon EtoV!
As we embark on the New Year 2010, we are given a wonderful opportunity to let go of our yesterdays and tomorrows…and to begin to live with our whole being the great NOW of the present moment.
Yesterday is gone, and yet often, through resentment, hurt, or anger, it is more alive to us than the present. Our yesterdays can haunt us and drag us down. The “skeletons in the closet” take on flesh when we allow them to live in our imagination.
Tomorrow is yet to arrive, and yet often, through fear or desire for control, it is more alive to us than the present. How easy it is, to forget the Gospel precept: “Do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)
A great New Year’s resolution would be to whole –heartedly give our yesterdays and our tomorrows to the care of the Lord. If there is anything we need to repent in our past, to do so, to take this to the Holy Sacrament of Confession, to receive the forgiveness of Christ, and then to let it go. Or if there is anything that we fear in the future, to take this to Christ and to lay it down before Him – as proof of our trust in His Divine Providence. Then, in this way, we can begin to live in the present. This is not easy to do. However, the start of a New Year is a great time to give it another shot. Here is some pastoral advice to assist us with this resolution:
- Become more aware of the action of the Holy Spirit in the present moment.
- Make a habit to see what the Holy Spirit is doing for us in life situations.
- Look at ourselves objectively, receive self-knowledge with gratitude. Pray for those who cause our faults to manifest themselves. It is really the Holy Spirit showing us areas in our souls that need spiritual fulfillment.
- After a fall, let us rise, repent, and continue on lovingly putting our trust in God.
- Exercise our faith by seeing the Holy Spirit making us holy. Hope by realizing He will bring good out of everything, and Love by responding with a union of wills – His first and then ours.
- Try to realize that life and all that happens during the span of time is permitted to transform us into the image of Christ.
- Each moment of time gives us an opportunity to change and be transformed and shine bright.
- If His word lives in us and we struggle to persevere in following that Word, He will sanctify our efforts.
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if we strive to follow this advice, I firmly believe that our 2010 will be filled with His light, and great spiritual enrichment.
Please be assured of my prayers for you as we begin this New Year! “Only through love can we truly know God.” (St. Basil the Great)
In Christ’s Love,
+ Fr. Nicholas V. Gamvas
+Rev. Protopresbyter Nicholas V. Gamvas, D.Min., Ph.D.
Ieratikos Proistamenos