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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop Sarah Mullally

Good morning,

Boxing Day comes as a bit of relief. Christmas is over. So much emotional effort goes into Christmas; months of buying gifts, wrapping and posting - then the opening of gifts, the food, the partying – it’s exhausting. Boxing Day is a time to have a break.

With one week to go until 2020 it’s the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning. New Year is full of the possibility of new beginnings. Many make New Year resolutions. The more cynical amongst us may have decided to give the whole idea away, having learned by bitter experience how hard it is to maintain them!

A prominent mental health charity agrees that resolutions for self-improvement are not always the best way to start the year. Some years ago, they said that resolutions which focus on issues such as the need to lose weight or job worries create a negative self-image. And if the plans fail to materialise, that could trigger feelings of failure and inadequacy.

Instead of making a New Year's resolution, they urged people to think more positively about the year to come and to take a few steps to improve all-round mental health, including being active, going green, learning something new and giving back something to the community.

Christians have just celebrated God’s great resolution. God resolved, in his infinite wisdom and love, to break into the world of human existence. God became uniquely connected with creation through the birth of Jesus Christ - God with us.

It’s from this foundation of love that I pray I’ll seek to be more active this year, improve my green credentials, learn something new and continue to serve people with joy.

Amen.

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