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God created us out of the great love that He has and out of the great love that He is. Genesis 1:26-28: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them…

As Lent approaches, we recall that this is a very special time set aside to reflect on Jesus Christ — to consider his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial, and resurrection. In the Gospel of John 3:16, we are reminded that “… God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

February is often viewed as the “month for love.” There is love of God, love of family, love of neighbor, and love of those whom we find difficult to love. There is also love of those we probably most love (like our children) even if we don’t always feel loving towards them because they need to test our love and we need to raise and form them — sometimes with tough love.

A new calendar year is upon us: 2020 Anno Domini (“in the Year of our Lord”). For most of us it is a time to reflect on this past year 2019 and look forward with hope and anticipation for a new year with new possibilities. As the author and keeper of our lives, God our Heavenly Father has gifted each of us with the same amount of days, hours, minutes and seconds within a year for whatever number of years each of us has in our personal destiny.

This special season of Advent can be a wonderful time of reflecting on the “light of Christ that lives in each of us.” Our Catholic faith has so many beautiful rituals, prayers, and symbols that can assist us in connecting with those deep desires that each of us have to be in relationship with the Holy Trinity: with God our heavenly Father and with his Son Jesus for whom we await the celebration of that special day we recall his birth — an event that turned the world on its axis and changed the course of history (We even changed the calendar). During this season, we trust the Holy Spirit to lead us into 2020 Anno Domini — In the year of our Lord.