As we embark on this new year of 2026, we look towards the new year. We are optimistic and wish for a better year ahead, but is there such a thing as a better year? Instead of that, we ask - "will I become a better person this year?" or "someone freer, liberated, more trusting, joyful, more rooted in relationship with God and one another." A better year may not mean no setbacks, no suffering. Yet we must acknowledge that anxieties and worries are part of our human condition and we can be plagued by them.

St Paul reminds us in Phil 4:6-7 – Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let us force on God and let God do what He does.

We can’t stop the storm or the heatwave or disasters or nasty people. Let us depend on Christ and let God shape us. Let us have God at the centre of our being - so that in trusting the will of God, we go through our lives still being joyful and celebrating what life has in front of us.

Our worries do not save us, but trust saves us, when we rely on God. Our smallest concerns and greatest fear then become our greatest confidence; our anxieties lose its grip on us and this year becomes a better year because we have a better me.

- Saturday Novena Devotion by Fr. Eugene Lee, C.Ss.R. (10 January 2026)