NEW BEGINNINGS

By Father Ron Longero

Reading the introductory pages to the January issue of the “Magnificat” I came across a short article about beginning a new year.  The author speaks of how people always look forward by making new resolutions.  He says that it is something that God has built into us.  He says that is so so that we would never stop longing for God.  Wow!  The little things that God does in us and we don’t even realize. 

This is the way it seems for all of our encounters with God.  God has hardwired us if you will for Him.  Nevertheless the human nature spends a great amount of energy trying to deny that reality and instead uses the hard wiring to devise idols of one’s own choosing.  The Hound of Heaven is always seeking out His people so that they may find their true happiness which is in God’s own heart, in God’s love.  That is what is at stake in the Incarnation of the Son of God in Jesus.  It is God coming to earth to seek us.  It is a new opportunity always for us to make a new beginning.

It is my hope this year as we think about new beginnings, that we each desire more and more the increase of happiness and love that God has for us.  It is my hope that more and more we learn how to respond to the small, still voice of the Hound of Heaven as he seeks our attention.

My resolve in this time new beginning is to respond to Jesus’ voice more and more often.  In this I believe that the more we respond the better our hearing becomes to His voice.  Jesus’ voice is the voice of love and redemption.  Ruth Burrows says that if we let God be God, let God love us, let God save us, (which involves humility on our part) that we will come to know Him ever more deeply.  May the Hound of Heaven never stop seeking you.