The New Year

The New Year

General Idea

His Holiness Pope Shenouda III speaks about how to receive the New Year with a conscious Christian spirit—not as a mere temporal celebration, but as a deep spiritual opportunity for renewal, beginning with thanksgiving, extending to self-examination, and ending with spiritual disciplines that lead to true growth.

First: Comprehensive Thanksgiving

He emphasizes that the correct beginning of any new year is thanksgiving—thanking God for everything that has passed, not only joyful events, but also deliverance from dangers, illnesses, and trials. Unconditional thanksgiving opens the door to increase, while forgetting thanksgiving causes one to lose the blessing of gifts.

Second: Self-Examination

He calls for precise self-examination without excuses, including visible and hidden sins, sins of thought, tongue, and action, as well as negligence in doing good. Whoever judges himself now pleases the Judge later, and whoever forgets his sins will have them remembered by God.

Third: Repairing What Is Broken Before It Is Too Late

He stresses the necessity of remembering forgotten matters now, because what is forgotten in the body is recalled after the soul departs, where there is no correction. Repentance now is a grace; delay is a loss.

Fourth: Spiritual Disciplines and Growth

Knowledge or regret alone is not sufficient without practical spiritual disciplines: abandoning former mistakes, acquiring virtues, and continuous growth in grace, so that the spiritual life may grow like a palm tree that increases every year.

Conclusion

The New Year is a blank page given by God to man. The real question is: will we begin a good beginning, or repeat what has passed? A good beginning is built on thanksgiving, self-examination, discipline, and careful spiritual watchfulness.

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