Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.

​
Dear Parish family,

If you are like me, every new year, I take the month of January to come up with a list of New Year’s resolutions. Areas in my life I wish to improve physically, mentally, and spiritually. There is always the one about adding more exercise or better eating choices to my daily routine. There is always one about self-care, to truly respect and make it a priority to have downtime and rest. And every year, I always seek an opportunity to grow in my knowledge and faith or in my outreach to others, sharing God’s love. I admit if I succeed in at least one of the items on my list, I feel I did well. I am a work in progress, and I try not to be discouraged when I fail or stumble; I get up and start again.


I bring this up because as I was meditating over the readings of this weekend, one phrase that stood out to me was our response to the Psalm, “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.” This phrase made me rethink my New Year’s resolutions; though it was a good list, it was all about MY will. I revisited them with God’s will as the focus. What do you want of me, Lord? I asked.


As I continued to read the Psalm, “he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God,” “ears open to obedience you gave me,” “It is prescribed for me to do your will, O my God, is my delight and your law is within my heart!” And finally, in our Gospel, “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”


What this all means to me now is simply put: Allow God to work through me. He will place the song (words) in my mouth, but I must open my ears to hear his voice so that I may follow. God’s WILL, is my joy. And I will be able to fulfill my Baptismal mission, to testify to all that “He is the Son of God.”
​

Our openness to his will, our YES, is what Our Lord is asking of us. In this task, let us follow our Mother Mary’s example and say Yes, to the will of God. In her Yes, she allows God to work through her to reach all the ends of the earth. 

God is the light, the source of all the good. If we let the light of Jesus shine through us, others might recognize Jesus for who he is, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”


​I pray that 2023 will be a year of health and blessings for all.


Tere Delgado

​
Faith Formation Minister 

---