"Consult not your fears, but your hopes and your dreams

Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential.

Concern not yourself with what you tried and failed in, but what it is still possible to do.

Now is the time to put aside past and present setbacks and failures and look with confidence to the new day called tomorrow."

— Pope John XXIII 

How often we live in our fears rather than in our possibilities! We live in darkness not in the light. We embrace a pessimistic attitude of life rather than an optimistic one. After a storm we focus on the ugliness left behind rather than on the beautiful, blue sky. This New Year is a grace given to us to become the person we are called to be and who we are in the eyes of God. Yes, there will be negative moments in our journey this year. But we are called not to focus on them  or to let them determine us. Rather we are to seek God's plan for us and his will in each situation on our journey. God loves us. He wills the best for us, what will lead us to a deeper, lasting relationship with him. Let this be our focus this year.