Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a poet I’ve long admired, once wrote that “hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’” I love the sentiment because there is baked-in optimism to it. Where we have been is surely darker than where we are headed. As we close out 2024, I can only hope that the new year will sing us a happier tune.
Since this is the season of gratitude and giving, I’d like to give thanks for new friendships. Greg Cellini, OSF, who authored this month’s article on peace-building—the last in our short series of articles that tackle social issues from a Franciscan perspective—has become a friend to me over the past year. When we meet periodically via Zoom, I look forward to his cheerfulness and good humor (and his East Coast accent is a delight to my Midwestern ears). But his article this month, in which he offers readers simple directions to spread a message of peace, registered with me strongly. “Maybe if I can give up the need to be right and, instead, be a peacemaker,” he writes, “I can help create this miracle.” Amen!
I’m also grateful to you, our readers. I appreciate that you allow our humble Franciscan magazine into your homes. We hope you have a peace-filled holiday season. And let us pray that 2025 is happier. We deserve it.
