A new year. Certainly, a time in which we are encouraged to make resolutions, generally with an eye to bettering ourselves: study more regularly, lose 10 pounds, be nicer to _____ (insert name of a person who taxes your patience)—and the list can go on and on. In the midst of a mountain of possible changes, I invite us to examine those lines of continuity that are important to maintain.

Think of the relationships that form the fabric of our lives: family, friends, colleagues, classmates. Think of the different roles that each of us is given to play: child and parent, student and teacher, athlete and coach, to name but a few. Finally, think of our primary purpose in life: the praise, reverence, and service of God, Our Lord.

All of these features stretch over many years, indeed, decades. True, they develop as we do; but they are with us for the long haul. Each new year offers us a chance for a resolve to cooperate with God in His perfecting the most important elements that constitute our lives. These continuities help us to decide properly the sorts of changes that we want to see in 2014, to choose the best means of growing into the persons that God has created us to be. Whether 2014 will see our sixteenth or sixtieth birthday, we ask for the grace to live AMDG and thus to allow this year to be set as another stone of a foundation that builds for eternity.

Fr. Raymond Fitzgerald, Jr., S.J. ’76
President