Happy 2012: Where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light….

Dear Reader, welcome to a blog that I’ve been writing since January 2005, some years with more dedication than others.  I’m hoping that I’ll keep to a better writing schedule here this year than last, fingers crossed.   Did I make this as a New Year’s Resolution?  Not really. 

I did take the time to count my many blessings as one year passed into another, and thanked God for them.  The big and the small.  One of the things that I thanked God for blessing me with was this blog and the ability to write it, the simple life I’m living, and you, Dear Reader, who sometimes leave comments or sending emails to me.  The internet is amazing, isn’t it?  People connecting who would otherwise never meet.

I’m not Catholic.  However, I do appreciate a lot about the Catholic Church and one of those things is the Catholic observance of the New Year.  Here’s a discussion of how Catholic families all over the world celebrated New Year’s Day yesterday.  Thought I’d share this prayer from St. Francis of Assisi, which I find particularly beautiful.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

R. Amen. —St. Francis of Assisi

God bless you and yours, Dear Reader.