At the Turn of the Year

At his first Christmas broadcast as King in 1939, King George VI struck a chord with a country facing the uncertainty of war, ending his broadcast by quoting some lines from a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins: 

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ 

And he replied: Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.” 

This last year marked the end of an era with the death of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth. She has repeatedly stated the importance of the teachings of Christ in her own life. I am sure she knew the words of the psalm: “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.”

In her own Christmas broadcast of 2002, the year she lost both her mother and her sister, she said: "I know just how much I rely on my own faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new beginning, I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God."

Those words seem appropriate as we stand at the gate of a new year. Who knows what might come our way? But if we can all learn to put our hands into the hand of God then we will walk together more surely. We will be starting this New Year well.

Abbot Paul and the Community wish you many blessings in this coming year.

Fr Brendan