New Year is a time for nostalgia and excitement, as we think back over the years and look forward to whatever the coming year has in store.

Recently, I have been browsing through some old photographs and recalling years gone by. Old photographs are like magnets - they draw our eyes and fasten on our fingers. Stopped in our tracks, the hours fly past as we enter into other worlds.

Family albums take us back across the generations. Weddings, outings, holidays, celebrations of one kind or another are preserved, smiles and frowns are frozen for all time. We gauge the eras from the fashions of hair and dress.

There is rivalry and glee in putting names to faces, and slowly we count the number who are now no longer with us on this earth …gone to God … such happy memories that tell tales of wonderful people who graced our lives and enriched us, with their wisdom, friendship, example, sense of devotion and love of life.

Our Christian faith reassures us of the grace and many blessings that God grants us.

We thank God for the happy memories that photographs afford us and for the pleasure they give to both young and young at heart.

  • The Rev Father Dave Duane, Parish Priest, Mater Amabilis Catholic Church, Ambleside