A Saintly New Year

A friend of mine who is a Catholic missionary shared with me a beautiful Catholic devotion that our family is going to make our annual New Year's tradition, and perhaps some of you would like to do the same. The tradition is as follows:

Religious orders, both male and female, particularly in the 1800's and early 1900's, got into the habit of drawing a saint's name at the close of each year, and that saint would be their "patron" for the coming year. St. Faustina, the saint who Jesus appeared to and taught her the Divine Mercy prayer in 1931, writes about this common devotion in her diary. Apparently, each sister would draw a saint name out of a hat, and they believed that God truly had a hand in which saint they received---that in the realm of the Eternal, God knows better than you what your needs for the coming year will be, and so He chooses a special saint to assist you in coming year. Therefore, the point is to develop a special relationship with the saint you were given, to learn about them, and to ask them to pray for you.

Last night we celebrated New Year's Eve with 2 other Catholic families who wanted to share in this tradition with us. So our boys wrote out the names of about 25 saints onto small sheets of paper and brought them to the party. At the close of the evening, all the adults and children drew a saint to be their special intercessor for the year. Here are the saints our family received:

Paul: St. Dominic
Maria: St. Peter
Joseph: St. Therese of Lisieux
Michael: St. Juan Diego
Dominic: St. Bernadette

I pray that these heavenly friends help our family grow in holiness in the New Year! I am so happy to have found this saintly devotion, and I imagine it will be much more fruitful than any New Year's Resolutions would've been! :)