The God Slot: New Year – mystery and invitation

How did you bring in the New Year? Maybe you were out with friends and heard the bells tolling the arrival of 2025.

More likely you had a quiet evening and did not wait up for any celebrations. Whatever way you chose to allow the New Year in, one thing can be certain – this is a time of mystery, of gratitude for being alive, of surrender to the power of One who guides all our journeys, and above all an invitation to make this world a better place because you and I live in it. It gives us an opportunity to reflect on the year gone by and to plan, as far as we can, for the year ahead.

I would caution against making resolutions that outstrip our ability to maintain them. If you put unrealistic expectations on yourselves you will only become disillusioned when you fail to keep them. You might want to exercise more, lose weight, spend more time with family and friends, improve your diet or pursue a career ambition.

Remember that ‘less is more’ and don’t complicate things. When it comes to exercise regular gym-goers will tell you that gyms are packed in January but empty in February.

One suggestion I make, and you have heard me say this before, is to create a ‘prayer space’ in your home. In ancient times, every home had its shrine to the gods and godesses. These were small altar areas where sacred images were displayed. Jesus said that God is spirit and should be worshipped in spirit and truth. But that truth does not exclude the need of a special place of prayer, an environment in which we are especially disposed to the Divine Presence, just as Jesus went off to the desert or the mountains to pray.

The danger of all shrines and sacred places is the temptation to view what lies outside their boundaries as secular.

The entire world (cosmos) is God’s temple and within it are billions of shrines. All land is holy land, but we easily forget that reality. Special, set-aside spaces remind us that all space is sacred.

This year, as part of your planning, it would be invaluable to set aside a particular place for your prayers and inner exercises.

For a fortunate few this personal shrine could be an entire room such as an unused bedroom or a small den. But for the majority it will mean a corner of a room.

To create such a space is thus to return to our roots It does not have to be elaborate, it can be as simple as putting a small crucifix or religious object (or indeed non-religious), on a small table in the corner. If you are a highly visual person, you may want to use a variety of symbols, icons or images to grace your personal shrine.

Understanding that personal tastes and needs will direct your choices in these suggestions, experiment with finding the kind of environment that can best open you to God in prayer.

The time you spend at your shrine will radiate powerfully in all your actions in the coming months. You will have a depth of presence, a less reactive stance, a broader horizon and above all, a more compassionate heart enabling you to hold all the tensions of opposites that the coming year will inevitably throw up. This year it is not so much what happens to us as to how we are around what happens that can make all the difference. If we are not rooted in something deeper than passing events and the inevitable accompanying emotional turmoil, we will be carried away like corks on the surface of a flowing river.

Following on from this I simply repeat the magnificent words of St Paul to the Colossians (3:12-21) to help you on your journey through 2025.

“You are God’s chosen race, his saints; he loves you and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience.

“Bear with one another, forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same.”

So let there be no drama, no unattainable ideals as we gently move into this mysterious, God graced year. That God who has journeyed with us to this point, Emmanuel – God is with us – will not desert us. In him we live and move and have our being.

Let the words of the prophet Micah 6:8 echo in the chambers of our hearts in 2025: “To act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God.”

A blessed and peaceful New Year to all our readers.