Beatitudes Community

The Gate of the Year

As the clamor of the holiday season has faded once more into hopefully happy memories of and joy, we turn now and look to the future, as we step into the New Year of 2018.

There are many days for us individually which cause us to pause and reflect on what has happened in our lives and what may be yet to come, but as we hang our new calendars on our walls and try to remember to write 2018 in our check books, we have a chance to collectively contemplate as we .

Looking back over 2017 we can remember both times of celebration and times of sadness and difficulty. Thinking firstly of , 2017 marked 500 years since the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, with events demonstrating unity within the Christian family of faith, while recognizing the contributions of Martin Luther and his fellow reformers. 2017 was also the year during which global measles deaths dropped below 100,000 for the time – an 84% fall since 2000, and while after starting the season with odds at 15/1, the Houston Astros won the World Series for the first time.

Unfortunately, as well as being able to reflect joyfully on these and many other events, many of us will also be reflecting on how our lives have been touched by sadness this year on a personal level and on a global scale. During 2017 conflicts in the Middle-East continued to add to the largest humanitarian and refugee crisis since WW2, and the people around the world mourned together for the loss of lives in the Las Vegas mass-shooting and as a result of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

As we step in to 2018 we may ponder to ourselves what the next twelve months will bring both in our own lives and in the wider world. Amid our wonder and our apprehension, perhaps we should greet 2018 with the words of this poem by M. L. Haskins in our hearts and minds;

“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. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.”

May our New Year bring us closer to God, who walks beside us on our pilgrimage of life, and a Happy New Year to you all.

Author Info: Andrew Moore
Chaplain Andrew is the Associate Chaplain here at the Campus. Before relocating to Arizona in 2014, Andrew lived and studied in the United Kingdom. Andrew was ordained in the Anglican Church and has worked in a variety of parishes.

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