For the monk, every minute is a new beginning. Is not one of the three monastic vows conversion of manners? <\/em>Is not the entire monastic life a conversatio<\/em>, a continued conversion to the monastic way of life<\/em>?<\/p>\n To those long familiar with the monastic way of life, therefore, new beginnings are a familiar enough idea. They are daily life. The monk is forever crying out in confidence: Delicta juventutis meae, et ignorantias meas, ne memineris. <\/em>The misdeeds of my youth \u2014 even those of a moment ago \u2014 remember Thou not (Ps. 24:7). It is as a monk once answered someone who asked what the monks do: “We fall down and we get up; we fall down and we get up; we fall down again, and we get up again.”<\/p>\n Thus the monk’s day, his week, his month, and his year is marked with new beginnings. Nunc coepi!<\/em><\/p>\n The New Year is a “new beginning” of this sort. New Year’s resolutions abound; the mistakes of the past year are put in the past, and, perhaps, one dares to allow oneself to feel that \u2014 at last! \u2014<\/em> I have now <\/em>begun. Nunc coepi! <\/em><\/p>\n But, as most Catholics know, it is not only the secular New Year that marks such a beginning. The first Sunday of Advent is hailed by many as a new beginning, a preparation for Christmas on which all things are made new. Lent too marks such a beginning. Septuagesima Sunday <\/em>is a sort of liturgical New Year, for it is on this Sunday that the Latin Church begins the Scriptures anew with the book of Genesis and the story of Creation. This great preparation for Easter heralds also the Lenten resolutions and the cleansing of the soul for the great feast of our redemption.<\/p>\n March 25th is also a New Year of sorts. It is the traditional date of the Crucifixion, as of the Annunciation, and of the Creation of the world (and for Tolkien fans, not coincidentally, the day of the destruction of the Ring). Or we might include March 1st, the ancient Roman New Year that even some Christians observed (and thus September\u00a0<\/em>means “the seventh<\/em>” and not “the ninth” month). Some, perhaps, would choose other feasts, such as the Nativity of the Lord, on December 25.<\/p>\n But one very ancient tradition marks the beginning of the year in September. This tradition goes all the way back to biblical times and traces of it are found in the Sacred Scriptures. Because of its relation to the harvest, it is a sort of natural annual rebirth. In much of the world, September marks the end of summer and the beginning of the academic year. The Jewish New Year too is the seventh month (the first day of Tisrei, the lunar month that corresponds to September).<\/p>\n In the Eastern Catholic Churches, September 1st (called “the beginning of the Indiction”) is the first day of the liturgical calendar. It is believed to be the day of the creation of the world in the East (the West prefers March 25), and also the day that commemorates when Christ entered the synagogue to proclaim: “The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me” (Lk 4:16-22; Is. 61:1-2).<\/p>\n Yet there is a more important reason why September might be considered the New Year. It is on September 8th that the Universal Church celebrates the Nativity of Our Lady. Was her birth not the first glimpse of the heavenly light of salvation?<\/p>\n Is not September, then, a Marian New Year?<\/em><\/p>\n We have mentioned January 1st and September 1st as candidates for the New Year. Is it not, then, propitious that these are two of the dates when Benedictine Monasteries begin afresh the reading of the Holy Rule with the first words of the Prologue, Ausculta, Fili,<\/em> “Hearken, o son…”? In ever Benedictine Monastery it is a new beginning, like a renewal of a monk’s monastic consecration.<\/p>\n![\"Sunrise](\"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/46587488041_0a83f15ddd_c.jpg\")
The Many New Years<\/h2>\n
September as the New Year<\/h2>\n
The Reading of the Holy Rule<\/h2>\n
The Marian O <\/em>Antiphons<\/h2>\n