Happy Second New Year! Second New Year you ask? Yes, I answer, and there’s still one more to come. First, there’s the secular calendar New Year on January 1st. Third, there’s the liturgical calendar New Year on the first Sunday of Advent. In between, there’s the Second New Year in September when life really begins anew after the Summer. People who were able to get away return home from vacations. Schools re-open. All the activities that were on hiatus in July and August start up again. Suddenly we’re inundated with meetings, conferences, lectures, commemorative events, parades, and more. Have to get it all in before the holidays and Winter cold!

It can be invigorating. It can be productive. It can also be exhausting, and it can be stressful. What of these rhythms of life? Are they good? Are they necessary? Are they avoidable?

It’s certainly nice to have the chance at a new start. If we’re entering into it after a period of down-time, we can bring to it new energy and new creativity. A new year can mean new opportunities, new encounters, new learning, and new experiences. But a new year can also mean leaving behind old comforts and old companions. It can mean new unknowns and new anxieties.


Let us look at nature at this time of year to get a handle on how we should be approaching this Second New Year. We might say it begins with the Autumnal Equinox when the hours of day equal the hours of night. At the Autumnal Equinox, day and night are in balance. The equinox offers us equal times to be active and to rest. It teaches us about balance in other more symbolic ways, too. For example, there is both light and dark in our lives. Can we try to keep them in balance? The Autumnal Equinox begins the season of Fall in the northern hemisphere. Leaves take on an explosion of beautiful colors. Temperatures cool. Can we celebrate the diversity of colors in our world, in humanity? Can we reduce the heat of conflict at home, at work, in our neighborhoods and country, on the campaign trail and across borders?

Can we also take a lesson from scripture? Jesus certainly knew about balance, about engaging with the crowds and retreating into solitude and prayer. He certainly experienced the light of friendships, parties, and ministry and the dark of rejection, torture, and crucifixion.

Let this Second New Year be a time of balance, a Happy New Year for you and yours!

Prayer excerpted from Prayer for Autumn Days by Sr. Joyce Rupp, OSM - full prayer available at http://www.inspiringthots.net/movie/prayer4autumn.php