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Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27–30). These four verses contain the whole of Jesus’s message; it is the nucleus of his Gospel: he calls us to share in his relationship with the Father, and this is eternal life.

Saint John Vianney taught that we should imitate the angels in their consciousness of the presence of God. In his “Sermon on Holy Communion,” he said, “We ought to ask the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and the saints to pray for us that we may receive the good God as worthily as it is possible for us to receive Him.”

Ponder these words and pray that your own guardian angel will enlighten you and guide you on the path to heaven. Here is a simple prayer:

As our mother, Mary cares about every aspect of our lives, past, present, and future. She cares about our joys and sorrows, successes and failures, dreams and desires. She cares about where we have been and where we are going. She cares about who we are and who we would like to become. She cares about the seemingly insignificant details of our daily routines and the huge life events. She cares about all that is important to us and even about what is not so important. She cares about everything.

Today we celebrate the Epiphany. The popular carol “We Three Kings” echoes in our heads and exotic images of the East swirl around us. It’s easy to distance ourselves from the story of the Epiphany, to see it as a movie set or a grand opera. But our tradition and our Scriptures remind us that we, too, have a part to play in the great story of salvation.

This wonder-inspiring power of the night sky is the backdrop to the traditional picture of the Christ coming into the world and also the light that makes the night sky not so dark and blank. The star serves as a companion image to the solstice—light appearing in the dark. And so it is a perfect image for the spirit of Christmas, a time when we are particularly overtaken by darkness and in need of light.

As the Christmas season draws to a close, we reflect not so much on the birth of Jesus as on the impact that birth had on all those who heard of it—the shepherds, the magi, the villagers, and us. By taking on our human reality, God shows us how to move beyond our ordinary routines into lives that can make a difference in our world.

Pope Francis reminds us that creation—including the weather—is a gift to be celebrated, not something simply to be controlled and altered. We lose our sense of wonder in nature when we become too absorbed in the structures of everyday life. 

Perhaps we’re a bit relieved that Christmas is over for another year. But perhaps we discover that something has changed in us because of an encounter, a gift, a new insight into the meaning of the incarnation. We can keep a little bit of that with us through the coming year and let it bring light and peace to our everyday lives. Our journey with God doesn’t end with the Christmas season. Jesus is forever, not just for Christmas.

Peace begins in the heart and moves outward. If we’re not at peace within ourselves, conflict will find its way into our daily interactions with others. If our families and neighborhoods are not at peace, turmoil in our cities will spread. As we begin the new year, make a commitment to focus on peace through prayer, through meditation, through working for justice.