Saturday, January 01, 2011

Happy New Year - 2011 - The Difference in Cultures

Happy New year 2011 to all! New Year's Eve is a time when most in our culture reflect back on the past year and all of its challenges and outcomes. This is usually with a hope that the new year will bring better and greater opportunities and blessings than the outgoing one.

Often this celebration is accompanied by drinking, dancing, and lots of distraction.

The Contemporary Catholic Church has room for all of this, but its focus is quite different. Each year, on January 1st, the Catholic Church rededicates itself to the care of Mary, the Mother of God and starts the new year with a Mass in honor of her Son.

I've always found the choice of the Psalm (Psalm 67) which is set to a Contemporary Catholic music chant setting below, to be very interesting. In this psalm, we ask that God will bless us in His Mercy. So the focus is God and His Mercy upon us in this new year, a stark contrast to the secular idea of what I'm gaining or missing each year.




Psalm 67 - May God bless us in his mercy

Renew the Face of the Earth

Lord Send out Your Spirit In commemoration of the completion of the Year of St. Paul! Check out http://gnm.org/meditations/HolySpirit.htm for higher resolution versions!