What is a Happy New Year for Christians?

But, what do most people mean by Happy New Year? Doubtless they mean a year free from illness, pain, trouble or worry; that instead, everyone may smile on you, that you flourish, that you make plenty of money, that the taxman doesn't get you, that you get a rise in salary, that prices fall, and that the news is good every morning. In short, that nothing unpleasant may happen to you. (G. Chevrot, Eigth Beatitudes).

It is good to wish these material good things for ourselves and others so long as they do not make us veer away from our final goal. The new year will being us our share of happiness and our share of trouble, and we don't know how much of each. A good year for a Christian is one in which both joys and sorrows have helped him to love God a little more. It is not a year that comes, supposing it were possible, full of natural happiness that leaves God to one side. A good year is one in which we have served God and our neighbour better, even if, on the human plane, it has been a complete disaster. for example, a good year could be one in which we are attacked by a serious illness that has been latent and unsuspected for many years, provided we know how to use it for our sanctification and that of those close to us.

... Let us resolve to convert our defeats into victories, each time turning to God and starting once again.

And, finally, let us ask Our Lady for the grace to live during this new year with a fighting spirit, as if it were the last that God was going to give us.

In Conversation With God Vol 1: Advent and Christmastide

I know I said I wouldn't post again until tomorrow but this hit me right between the eyes and I couldn't get it out of my head, so I thought I'd share it.

A good year for a Christian is one in which both joys and sorrows have helped him to love God a little more. Obviously this is a no-brainer but sometimes I have to see things put together just the right way to have it sink in. We can't avoid the bad or good. Each is coming our way in the coming year. Indeed. Either can bring us closer to God or take us further away from Him depending on how we approach it. That just make it more imperative that I thank God for helping me through both. And to give me that fighting spirit.

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity