Light from the Altar - The New Year, 1 January

New Year's Eve and midnight drawing near! Open the window and listen to the bells ringing solemn and joyous, over town and country. Why are they ringing! Night is the time for sleep and rest. Why do they quiver in their lofty towers and bespeak attention when men are weary? Quick, quick, the Old Year is dying. Let us fall on our knees, and let us burden its speeding away with fervent prayer for pardon, acts of loving contrition, and sincere thanksgiving. We have received much from God - graces, helps, and comfort. We have offended often, falling from frailty, from passion, from sinful habit. Come let us, weak children, make all right with our Heavenly Father. Let us come close to Him and believe in His mercy and love. For this is why the bells ring out to-night as the Old Year goes by, that with sorrow and gratitude we may wipe away our errors and our sins. "Be merciful. Lord, to me a sinner," is the burden of our song.

Midnight strikes and still the bells ring on. Why do they not cease with the Old Year? No, they may not cease yet; they have done but half their task. Ring out a joyous peal, the New Year is coming, a gift fresh from the hand of God, like a parchment rolled, unsullied, unmarked by good or bad. "The bells promise this New Year to me - my twentieth, thirtieth, sixtieth." Mark the "my." But how much will be mine? I am living now and have seen the Old Year out, but shall I be here at the close of the New? Shall I see the whole parchment unrolled, and make my marks upon it as I did last year - good, bad, indifferent, poor - like a careless child's copy? I can get no certain answer to this question. No one on earth can tell me how much of the New Tear is to be mine. The doctor may say my heart is sound and my constitution good, bi;t these will not keep me from fever, contagion, or accident. What must I do then? Bring home to myself this truth of uncertainty, and let it teach me to be wary in my doings and heedful of my steps.

The midnight hour with the merry bells ringing is a time for reflection. I see myself standing and listening to the sound, reaching out my hand to my Creator and taking from His time in drops, as it were; lifting up my face to Heaven and expecting the hours and the days as they become due. What a hold God has on me! What if I should reach out my hand in vain? What if I lift up my face and receive no light? He is Lord and Master, and the moments are His. Blessed be His Name for ever.

But the bells ring hope into my soul, and joy in the present and trust in the future. What is best is given always, what is best for me. And He who did not fail me in the past will not fail me in the future. I will take, therefore, from His hand a long life or a short one; joy or sorrow, ease or pain. And I will welcome each as a gift from One Who loves and Who knows. And I will stand up firm and brave to meet the unknown New Year, for I know He will not try me beyond my strength; He will not give me a "stone when I ask for bread" nor a "serpent when I ask for fish."

And I make a resolution for the New Year - only one: to be on God's side unmistakably, not "one foot on land, one on sea," unstable as the wind, but I resolve to keep all His commandments, all the precepts of the Church, to say my prayers faithfully. True-hearted Catholics are needed in this dear country of ours. Please God, I will be of their number.

- taken from Light from the Altar, edited by Father James J McGovern, 1906