Bishop Wester asks Our Lady's blessing and Our Lord's benediction during the new year

Friday, Dec. 26, 2014

On New Year’s Day, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Because Mary is also the Mother of the Prince of Peace, we can certainly honor her with the title “Mother of Peace.” For this reason, the beginning of the new calendar year is an excellent opportunity to beseech our Mother of Peace to intercede for us and for our world as we experience an ever- spiraling growth of violence.

I believe that it is this gift of peace, which comes only from the newborn Savior, that attracts us to the manger scene that we see so often at Christmas. This setting for the Redeemer’s birth was indeed primitive, yet it was serene. We are drawn to Mary, who “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart” even as she gave thanks for the gift of her newborn child. We are enticed by the adoration of Saint Joseph, the wonder of the shepherds, and the goodwill of the angels, all of which invite us to contemplate the peace brought by Emmanuel.

The question I would pose at the beginning of this new year is whether we are inclined to live the peace that Christ brings, or will we just let it lie in the manger as we move through the days and months ahead?

The challenge of Christmas is to live what we celebrate; that is, to live the peace of Christ in our lives.

We pray for peace in our world, peace in the Middle East, in South Sudan and other African countries, in the parts of Central and South America that are ravaged by the effects of the drug trade, in Palestine,  in the Ukraine – all those places where conflict rather than harmony reigns.

Here in our own country and in our homes, we must also be instruments of peace. We need to put an end to domestic violence, to prejudice, to greed in all its forms – all those things that prevent peace and cause discord in our lives, including the inexcusable use of torture.

It is my prayer that you and I will allow the Prince of Peace to make our hearts his new manger. I pray that he will touch us in such a way that we will become instruments of peace in our fragile world.

May Mary, the Mother of God, intercede for us, and may Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, raise his arms in benediction over us in this local Church, the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

I wish the peace of Christ for all in this wonderful diocese of ours, today and throughout the new year.

Yours in the Lord,