How to Ring in the New Year…

Beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year

In today’s Gospel passage we hear:

Luke 4:16-22 (Gospel, New Year)
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So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
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And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
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The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
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To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
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Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
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And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
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So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

Once again we offer time itself to the Lord. We proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So that the Lord may accept those few things we offer him during any given time period. We beg Him to be merciful to us for everything we haven’t done during the whole year to work towards our salvation and we beg Him to help us during the new ecclesiastical year that unfolds before us to grant us strength to do good and turn away from evil.