In our culture today is the New Year and it’s celebrated with a certain amount of nostalgia for reflecting on what happened last year and it’s a bit of a wild hope of blessings this coming year and with it is the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions. We could probably start with what you did last night. Less food and less drink and maybe a little more sleep and balance in your life.

If we really want to get a deeper view of the Christmas season and the position of the Blessed Mother in it you have to look at fuller passages of scripture. We read in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 12: A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was with child and cried out in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky, it was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on its head were seven diadems. Then the text continues then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth to devour her child when she gave birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with a lot of iron. Then further on in verse 12: then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring and those who keep God’s commandment and bear witness to Jesus.

This gives us a lot fuller vision of the Christmas season. That something deeper is happening when the child is born in Bethlehem. Namely, Jesus is invading enemy territory. The enemy is very much alive and he’s the devil. The devil is real. If we follow another text in scripture: He roams the world seeking whom he may devour.

But if we understand this season and why we have joy in it God sent us a tremendous blessing. He sent us Jesus, as the text of the gospel reminded us, that his name is Jesus. What he does best is to save. So he came to conquer, and he did conquer sin and Satan.

So Christmas is also a call then to join Jesus in a mission and a work. So it is fitting that on New Year’s for us when we are thinking of New Year resolutions to understand that the spiritual life is a warfare. And that it’s a constant call to conversion and renewal. So today the church holds before us the Mother of God. Every person in the Christmas story has a message to tell us because these are the people that were near Christ when he was born. Telling us that they are the people who are receptive to God’s action at this moment. So they have a message for us. When we look at the Blessed Mother there’s so many things we can look at. But if we look at her in the context of the Christmas message what do we see? We see a woman who has surrendered her life to God and his plan for her. She had willing acceptance and she offered herself to the point of forgetting herself and anything else with her personal will. That’s her message to us. That’s the stance that keeps us open to God. So Mary as a model is both a guide and at the same time a kind of judgement telling us that this is the way you have to go. After all she’s the woman described in the book of Genesis whose seed would crush the head of Satan. Because she was united with Jesus, she was the Mother of the source of light against all the darkness, and she crushed with him, his head.

So if we are going to enter this year with good resolutions and we are going to have a fruitful year, we have to listen to the guidance of the Blessed Mother and ask ourselves to what degree have we surrendered our life to God and to what degree are we accepting our personal life and its conditions and its mission? After all the personal life is the life to move away from self toward God, toward others, for God. It’s pretty tough in our culture because our culture thinks quite differently. Our culture says what’s in it for me? What do I get out of this? It’s wrapped up with itself and it’s looking always for convenience, it’s always looking for comfort, it’s always looking for ease, it’s always saying I don’t want the cross, and it’s always saying basically how can I live a comfortable day today? Some people are so caught up with their body comfort that they’re very far from the Spirit. When you’re far from the Spirit, when you organize your life around self gratification, then what happens? Your life becomes boring, poor and miserable. So you have to listen to the church’s proclamation through Mary of the decision she made. She made a decision for life. That is, she surrendered herself to God and that’s the way to become fully alive. It’s a decision that obeys the very laws of life. We see it in her life. As we see the rest of her life unfold, she not only is assumed into heaven but she’s queen of heaven and earth.

Many saints in the church have learned, have found ways to keep their dedication of God going in their daily lives. They used little practices. They recalled an renewed their conscious and spiritual goals and purposes so that they could live their day as a day of love. Acts of love today. Today is a day of loving God and they did it. Some renewed their morning offering. They would start the day offering everything to God and then they would renew it on the hour. Rededicate themselves. Others like St. Theresa of Avalia, would make a spiritual communion almost every 15 minutes. So that the whole day was a series of love. So what does this mean? It means that they stayed in the context of God’s graces and blessings that he has given us. And if we listen to the first and second readings we realize that God wants to bless us all the time. He’s made all kinds of positions to bless us. One is the priest gives last blessing at Mass and some people are already gone so they miss it. But God wants to bless you through the priestly blessing upon you. That’s just one, there’s many more. Paul tells us that we receive anew the blessing of being the adopted children of God. Which means the Father is looking upon us with love as his children. And he’s happy. Just like you are happy when you gather and you see each other grow and you update your connections, you’re happy with everybody. The Father is much more happier about us and Paul tells us that we can turn to the Father and say, "Abba, Father."

So we can trust the future of our lives. We can go forward because first of all we don’t go through life alone. This season reminds us that God is with us. Today it reminds us of something else. It reminds us that Mary, our Mother, is our powerful intercessor and will help us to become fully what God intended us to be, namely, to imitate her Son, if we call upon her. For the proof of this already in around year 200, in Egypt, we have a very powerful prayer called the Memorare. Already at 200 A.D. and that powerful prayer is the one that we should carry with us the rest of this year. It goes like this: Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored they help or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother. To thee do I come; before thee I stand sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.