The first full week of the New Year

Early on this cold and crisp Sunday morning I realize that all of us are facing the first full week of the New Year. With New Year's Day falling on a Friday, most of us have enjoyed a 3 or 4 day weekend or perhaps an even longer break if you had any end of the year vacation. I'm in that category as I have been off from the job since December 22nd.

Over the past few days many of us have concentrated on what the New Year will bring or have been fine tuning our New Year's resolutions. I have already mentioned how hard it is to plan or look forward well into the future. But this Sunday morning may give us an opportunity to put into practice a resolution of sorts. We all can gather our thoughts and plans today and look at the week ahead and make plans to get 2010 off to a great start.

For me, and I suspect many of you, it will be back to the office tomorrow morning. After a couple of weeks of sleeping in, which I really don't do anyway, it will be a sharp 6 a.m. wake up call. As is often the case with a long abscence from the desk, there will be the usual backlog of emails and phone messages and tasks left incomplete from two weeks ago. Unlike in my past life, I resolve not to burn out in one day or one week. My goal is to be a little better organized and in control. Maybe I can update you on how well that goes or how long it will last.

School starts locally on Monday and for my church parish that means the first day of CCD classes in almost a month. One of the really nice ways to kick off a new week, let alone a new year, is to surround yourself with these children. I enjoy visiting with our CCD children or leading a prayer service in the church. Either way, it will be very nice to see them all gathered together again learning more about Jesus and our faith.

In this first full week of the New Year I will try to be aware of the fact that we are still in the Christmas season. We are in the final week of the liturgical Christmas season with January 6th coming up on Wednesday and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord this Sunday. January 6th used to be universally accepted as the Epiphany; now we celebrate it on the first Sunday of the New Year. For us locally, January 6th also is known as King's Day as we also mark the beginning of our Mardi Gras season with 12th night celebrations and the tradition of eating King Cake. Baked into the dough of a King Cake is a tiny plastic baby, symbolizing the Christ child found; just as the three wise men found the Christ child in Bethlehem.

In the week ahead I also have resolved to be aware more of what I'm eating and to take a couple of walks; to simply get away from the computer and the easy chair and move more. It would be a wise thing to get in a little better shape in 2010 as the demands of both job and ministry can be physically demanding.

January on it's own is a challenging month. For us living in the deep south, we will face one of the coldest weeks in a long time with 4 or 5 days of predicted lows below freezing. For some of you reading this you probably laugh at this as I know a large part of our nation is bitterly cold. Trust me, after a few days of lows in the twenties our locals will be convinced we live in Siberia. Will January bring us, the long suffering fans of the New Orleans Saints, a playoff season we have dreamed about for years? We will learn nothing today as the Saints play second string against Carolina. But we will host a playoff game in two weeks but it will come after a 3 game loosing streak. If the Saints of the 13 game winning streak show up, we may be loving January in New Orleans like never before.

So, if you are in the same position I am, enjoy your day today. Make it to Mass and spend some quiet time in prayer. Plan the week ahead and don't look to far into the future. Make this a great week. Tough out those resolutions or ideas you have to make your life a little better. Pray more, laugh more and smile a lot. Don't let anything get you down and live in the moment.

It's the first full week of the New Year; another gift from God! What will you do with this gift? The answer lies with each of us.