NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

What a year 2014! A year in which I was out of a job for 7 months and then suffered heart attacks recently which led to angioplasty procedures and stents being inserted. 

One might be inclined to say to me "you had a rough year" but it really didn't feel so. Why?.. 

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...Because I always felt the Lord's Presence and that brings peace. If there is one thing that this deacon learned is that peace comes, not in the absence of storms on our life but,  with the presence of the Lord in the storms of our life.

Indeed I had moments of anxiety but they were remarkably fleeting. Though the grace of God unemployment turned to re-employment in a better company and position. Heart procedures have led to the best physical shape that I've felt and looked in years. 

There was pain and loss in the passing of a dear cousin but there was also love and gain as our family seemed to bond even closer. So when I toast tonight it will be a toast of thanksgiving for the past year and hope for the promises of 2015. It was a very good year!

Now for the resolutions
In a meeting with Vatican employees Pope Francis asked them to do 10 things. They make great New Years resolutions. Here they are:

– “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."

Thanks also to all of you who enriched my life so much this year. Lets work harder and holier to establish the Kingdom of God in 2015.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL