January 2025

Dear Rev. Fathers, Religious, and People of God,

          A new year 2025 has dawned and any new year is precious gift to all of us. I wish you all a Happy New year filled with God's blessings and prosperity. In this month, we have several occurrences: Mary is the mother of God, naming of the Lord, first day of civil year, the octave of Christmas etc.,

         Mary gave birth to Jesus and so undoubtedly is the mother of Jesus. Now Jesus is both God and man. As Elizabeth said, Mary is  the  mother  of  Jesus.  She  is  also  our  mother  because  Jesus made us sons and daughters of God. Jesus clearly says from the cross,  “She  is  your  mother”.  God  wants  the  mother  to  be honoured. So, today, we are celebrating the Mother of God and our Mother. We therefore have double reason to honour Mary with great joy reverence.

          As we are her children, we learn important lessons from her. As we are her children, we should learn from Mary the lesson of authentic  Christian  living.  Mary  teaches  us  both  by  example and word.  Our love for Mary should lead us to imitate her.  Her prayerfulness,  humility,  surrender  to  God's  will,  obedience, love for neighbour, gratitude to God and her trust in Jesus are shining examples for us to imitate. 

     We have just begun the New Year and welcome this year with joy, hope and expectation. It is a precious gift from God who is giving new opportunities to grow in mind, body and spirit to better ourselves in every way. It is a moment for us to look back to  review  and  to  look  forward  in  hope.  It  may  be  that  the memory  of  the  past  year  makes  us  sad  on  account  of  the mistakes we made and failures we experienced, the progress we made,  and  the  success  we  had  all  prompt  to  give  praise  and thanks to God.

       Through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, let the year 2025 be filled with God's blessings.

Yours devotedly in newborn Saviour

+L. Thomas Aquinas

Bishop of Coimbatore