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As I wait to receive my patron Saint for 2012, I have also looked back at 2011 and my patron, St. John Berchmans. In my post last year, I hoped that St. John might help me find greater simplicity and holiness in everyday life, and that his youth might help me stay in touch with my own youth.
I have to say, I have not been a very good companion this year. I have not devoted myself to cultivating my relationship with my patron as much as I would have liked. And yet, being the Saint that he is, St. John has been faithfully present with me, working behind the scenes, gently steering me toward where I need to go. This past year has been fraught with difficulty, and yet I have come through it with a simple grace that I cannot attribute to myself alone. In fact, it has sometimes been in the midst of difficulties that I have come to understand the great value and necessity of simplicity and of childlike faith and humility before God.
Although I cannot pinpoint any specific lessons, I can definitely say that I have learned a lot over this last year. That is often how God and the Saints and the angels work in our lives. They rarely come upon us like flashes of lightning. Rather they gradually kindle a flame in us, nurturing it to a lasting glow. Eventually, we come to see that our lives and the world around us have taken on a new color, a new clarity.
I thank God and St. John Berchmans for being with me this year, speaking softly to my soul and helping it grow.
There is a wonderful new year’s devotion that involves finding a Saint to be your special patron during the year. To learn more and to find out who your patron will be for 2012, visit this post at the blog A Catholic Life. You can sign up by leaving a comment on that post; you can sign up any time during the month of January.
I am eagerly waiting to see who my patron will be!
Happy new year to all, merry 8th day of Christmas, and a blessed Solemnity of Mary Mother of God! I am starting the new year with a blog post, so that hopefully I will make a habit of blogging more regularly. Yes, I know you’ve heard that before, but I really mean it! Really really!
I have very good feelings about 2012. I feel a special energy and joy and hope for this year. Never mind all the doom-sayers who are sure the world is ending this year!
I hope everybody is having a good Christmas. I spent it with my family in Savannah, Georgia. I attended Mass at the glorious Cathedral of St. John the Baptist; that was a highlight of the trip for me, but even moreso, I enjoyed spending the time with my mother and sister and brother-in-law.
I’m guessing many of you were surprised that I didn’t post a great big article extolling the greatness of the new, corrected English translation of the Roman Missal, given how often I’ve expressed excitement about it. Well, to put it briefly and mildly, I have not been disappointed! :D I think it is beautiful, majestic, elegant, elevated, and uplifting. I think it allows the English language to shine most radiantly. It reminds me of how beautiful our language can be.
I was shocked–shocked, I tell you–that I noticed absolutely no adverse effects among the congregations I have been part of. Nobody running from the church screaming and pulling their hair out because the new words were so confoundedly alien and difficult. I mean, given the furor I heard/read during the lead up to this fateful first Sunday of Advent, I thought surely there would be at least a few people snapping and breaking down. Maybe a few ears bleeding. Maybe even a head or two exploding. But no, not one. Could it be, dare I say, that the complainers, the protesters, the rebels, and the scoffers who permeated the liberal secular and “catholic” media didn’t actually represent the vast majority of Catholics in the pew? Or have I merely been fortunate to be in congregations dominated by sane people, or at least people polite enough to keep their complaints to themselves? What has your experience been in the wake of Translation Apocalypse? Has your corner of the world ended or . . . not so much?
One thing I’ve noticed is that the music has improved dramatically in some parishes I have visited, since we’ve had to come up with new settings for the new translation. Again, no awful adverse effects that I’ve seen.
With that, dear readers, I pray that you enjoy a wonderful and richly blessed new year! May God and Mary and the hosts of Heaven be with you always!
