Lots of people make New Year's resolutions. Most are not kept very
long, because they are often vague wishes rather than an intentional
plan of action. Many are about self-improvement, with little awareness that real growth in holiness is received, not achieved.
If we truly desire to be a new person and have a more beautiful life, we need not only a plan. We also need God's help received through prayer and the grace of the Sacraments. A great new year's resolution is to participate in Mass every weekend.
As we enter 2024, it is an opportunity to live a more intentional life, to take some concrete steps to become a saint. We turn the page 2023, and we ask God's help in 2024. As G. K. Chesterton said,
"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year, but that we should have a new soul."
May God's grace and our efforts in 2024 give us all new souls.