Happy New Year and blessings on this New Year’s Day. As the Christmas season continues and as we start a New year, it is a day when we can think of the place of Our Lady in the life of St. Ignatius and the First Companions, in the lives of Jesuits down through the years and in our own lives. 

Various paintings and places associate us with Mary. The painting of Madonna della Strada, now hanging in the Gesù church in Rome was one particularly loved by St. Ignatius.  The painting of Our Lady Untying the Knots, so beloved of Pope Francis, has got much attention because of the impact it had on his life. Various shrines to Our Lady include the shrines at Guadalupe and at Lourdes which put us in touch with devotion to Mary among nations and cultures worldwide; our Lady of Czestochowa so important to the Polish people, the Marian shrine at Medjugorje in Bosnia, a country where there has been so  much war and suffering, the shrine of our Lady in Lebanon where both Muslims and Christians come to pray.  Almost every country has its own particular expression of devotion to Our Lady. They all express Mary’s tenderness, her ‘yes’. 

Our vulnerability in the face of the challenges of life can sometimes make us nervous and afraid. But Mary’s example shows us not to go in the direction of ‘no’ but, instead, to say ‘yes’.  Mary’s example of openness, of ‘yes’ even in the face of great uncertainty helps us.  Her warmth, her openness, her love encourage us to trust as we face uncertainty. They invite us to rely more fundamentally on God rather than on our own efforts.  

Let us pray as this new year begins that it can be a year of trust, a year where we say ‘yes’ more and more to God’s daily invitation, a year where we grow together as servants of Christ’s mission in a world where people are searching for hope and light. 

Wishing you many blessings for this New Year.

Yours sincerely,

John Dardis SJ
CEP President