Have a Listening New Year

This time of year often feels bittersweet to me as I reflect on the experiences of the past year and celebrate the start of the New Year.  For me 2014 is marked by joyful moments, significant losses, acceptance and stretching of my limits, opportunity, grace and gratitude.  As I sit here and write I find myself both smiling and teary as the memories flash like pictures through my mind.  I find myself wondering where 2014 went and breathing a sigh of relief that it is done.

As 2015 starts I am abandoning my usual list of resolutions and am turning to Benedict whose first word in the Rule is “Listen.”  In seeking to listen, I hope to live with mindfulness and presence, not too far in the past or the future.  To listen carefully to God’s work in daily experiences, creation and the people whom I encounter.  I want to listen and be present so that I can savor the joy, experience gratitude and ride the waves of challenge.  I will listen my way into New Year and keep working at listening whatever 2015 may be bring.  Have a blessed and listening New Year!

                                      Sr. Kimberly Porter OSB

“Behold I Make All Things New.” (Rev. 21:5)

     I always enjoy the celebration of the New Year because of my association with the word new. I have been practicing my resolution for 2012 for about a month, and it has given me a new outlook on life. It is the practice of remembering not just the New Year, but every new day and every new moment . It requires much discipline to follow this practice, but it is very rewarding. 

     Scripture abounds with the word new. It occurs numerous times in the Old and New Testament and at least eight times in the Psalms. A common line in the Psalms is, “Sing a new song to the Lord.” How many times have I sung, “Sing a new song to the Lord?” At first I asked myself how I could sing a new song numerous times and find it new. Of course it is new. I’m singing it on a new day at a new moment with the new self with which I awoke this morning. The last time I sang this song is gone forever and so I sing it with new awareness and a renewed heart. Being in touch with the new moment and with the succeeding new moments of the each day can be life changing.  Indeed I am always singing a new song!                                               

     Keeping in touch with the newness of everything I do makes me conscious of the presence of the Lord in each new task. It helps me be aware that everything I do and everything I say needs to be for the glory of God.    

      Sr. Victoria Eisenman, OSB