The 2021 year, people hope upon hope, that it will mark the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Pope Francis has urged to create a “culture of care,” by sharing the gift of their time with others. Despite suffering from a bout of sciatica, nerve pain that left him unable to preside over Mass on Jan 1 in St Peter’s Basilica, the Pope sent a homily focused on God’s blessings and on sharing those blessings with others. Consecrating the New Year to Mary, the Pope prayed that she would “care for us, bless our time, and teach us to find time for God and for others.”
“This year, while we hope for new beginnings and new cures, let us not neglect care”. The Pope wrote “Together with a vaccine for our bodies, we need a vaccine for our hearts. That vaccine is care. This will be a good year if we take care of others, as Our Lady does with us.”
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Here are the resolutions I am impressed with and those of you who are interested can still make good one or two from the ones listed below:
“Take care of your spiritual life, your relationship with God, because this is the backbone of everything we do and everything we are.”
“Take care of your family life, giving your children and loved ones not just money, but most of all your time, attention and love.”
“Take care of your relationships with others, transforming your faith into life and your words into good works, especially on behalf of the needy.”
“Be careful how you speak, purify your tongue of offensive words, vulgarity and worldly decadence.”
“Heal wounds of the heart with the oil of forgiveness, forgiving those who have hurt us and medicating the wounds we have caused others.”
“Look after your work, doing it with enthusiasm, humility, competence, passion and with a spirit that knows how to thank the Lord.”
“Be careful of envy, lust, hatred and negative feelings that devour our interior peace and transform us into destroyed and destructive people.”
“Watch out for anger that can lead to vengeance; for laziness that leads to existential euthanasia; for pointing the finger at others, which leads to pride; and for complaining continually, which leads to desperation.”
“Take care of brothers and sisters who are weaker … the elderly, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and strangers, because we will be judged on this.”
St Paul writing to Ephesians says: ‘You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires’. This invites a person to change an undesired trait or behaviour, to accomplish the personal goal or otherwise get better in their life, need to be done by God’s grace, through faith in God’s power and for God’s glory. So let us introspect and avail of the vaccine called ‘CARE’.
