A timely thought for the New Year

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“Time”

The old year is past; a new one has just begun, and we are all now one year closer to eternity. For many people this past year, time was no more. One moment they were in time, the next moment they were in eternity. Time is a two sided coin, one side despised and wasted during life, the other priceless and unattainable at the hour of death.

God has given us these days to work out our salvation, but how well do we use them? How often have we observed a man in idle pursuit? If we ask him what he is doing he would reply, “Oh, I am just passing the time.”

I remember an old song of many years past. It was called "Standing on the corner watching all the girls go by." Are we just standing on the corners of life watching the days of our salvation going by unused?

Compared to eternity, our time here on earth is but the blink of an eye. We are like grains of sand that lie upon the shores of the oceans of eternity. Like castles in the sand, we are here but for a moment, and then we are no more: swept away by the tides of time and scattered by the winds of eternity.

When I am older, often do some say, I shall change my way, but for now, tomorrow is just another day. O what foolish folly, for who shall guarantee us tomorrow? In a moment, death could snatch us away, and leave our soul filled with sorrow.

To quote Saint Alphonsus De Liguroi:

*“O time despised during life, you will be ardently desired by worldlings at the hour of death. The thought that they must very soon appear before Almighty God, to give an account of their lives, fills them with untold confusion and anguish. They will ask for another year, another month or another day to settle the accounts of their conscience, but they will ask in vain. To obtain a single hour they would give all their wealth and worldly possessions, but this hour shall not be given.”
*
Let us therefore exert ourselves to the utmost to accomplish the work of our salvation while there is still time. Many there are, that for them, tonight shall be their last. For them, forever more, the time of grace has past. Return now to God, so that salvation may yet be won. Do now, what, on the Day of Judgment, you would then wish you would have done.
 
I like this. I have always been deeply disturbed by people who do things just to “fill the time” and cant function with free time / need someone to fill it for them. I have the opposite issue of learning to accept some things I must do that seem utterly frivolous are useful to God in some way
 
I like this. I have always been deeply disturbed by people who do things just to “fill the time” and cant function with free time / need someone to fill it for them. I have the opposite issue of learning to accept some things I must do that seem utterly frivolous are useful to God in some way
That was St. Therese’s “little way”, doing the small. seemingly insignificant, things as perfectly as she could. Remember the story of Naaman the lepper. He was cured by doing a very small insignificant thing. Such actions teach us humility; a very good quality in God.s sight.

“So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” 11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. 13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy”.
4 Kings 5: 9 - 14

Thanks for the note. God bless.

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