Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021! Let us consecrate our hearts to the Lord

Goodbye, or perhaps good riddance to 2020! Hopefully the plague upon the land, which has wreaked so much havoc and death, will also pass. As we begin the New Year, let us use this time to turn back to God in prayer and repentance so the darkness of the past will dispel and humanity will once more flourish in faith and abundance. 

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Highlights

By Marshall Connolly (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
12/31/2020 (1 year ago)

Published in U.S.

Keywords: 2021, 2020, peace, wellness, New Year

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - This is our prayer for 2021. The present crisis can be blamed on many things, biology, politics, economics and so on. But once thing is certain: our turning away from God has invited such disaster. We know because we've seen this very thing in ancient Israel. When God's people turned to wickedness, they also turned to darkness that eventually enveloped the land. Fortunately, God is infinite in His mercy, and when the people understood their sin and repented, God restored them and their land, time and again. 

This is our call to action. We must redirect our energy inward. All the effort we have put into pushing and pulling others, all the energy spent on fruitless pursuits, all the anxiety over politics and money, all this must be focused instead on ourselves. We must examine our conscience and repent. We must devote ourselves to good works and charity. We must perform charitable works without regard for who "deserves" what. Deserve has nothing to do with it. After all, should we like to get what we truly deserve? Do we deserve the salvation earned for us by Jesus Christ who although innocent died for us? Thanks to our fallen state, we assuredly do not. Yet, this grace is ours as a free gift from God. Likewise, we must be charitable to one another. 

The coming year will not be better than the previous unless we change ourselves. We must consecrate our hearts to Christ, and we must keep doing so with every confession and Mass. If we devote ourselves to God with the same energy we devote to so many useless, vain endeavors, we will find our own lives will improve, as well as the state of the world. 

Let us pray. 

We at Catholic Online wish all of you a happy and blessed New Year. May these trials strengthen us and our resolve to cling evermore tightly to Jesus Christ, Our Lord.