Assumptionist Center residents Raphael Yabut and Erwin Susanto celebrate the Lunar New Year with Fr. Joseph Yhang at his Parish of St. James in Boston's Chinatown.

Our jubilee year will be, I hope, a time of joy and renewal as much personal as communal. The Assumptionist can be defined as a man who has confidence in the grace of God, a man who surrenders totally to the Holy Spirit. With him we can realize much more than we could hope.

The beginning of the year is traditionally marked by an exchange of wishes, but also by resolutions that we make for a better life, for better health or for a better self-image. I leave it to everyone to make these decisions in hopes that they will lead one to greater holiness. But without my insisting, during this jubilee year, on an elementary truth: the more we open ourselves to sanctity, the more will the holiness of Fr. Emmanuel d’Alzon be clear and evident.

As for myself, I make my prayer the one said by the priest at the Eucharist: “That I may never be separated from you.” I love this, because in its simplicity, it says much about the desire that animates the heart of the believer: that one never be separated from the love of the one who gave everything for us. Often, I allow myself to broaden my prayer and to include in my petitions the totality of the Assumption religious: young and not so young, in formation or immersed in pastoral work. I wish that each of us becomes totally a companion of the Lord throughout this New Year. May we be profoundly rooted in the life of God. To become a saint, is to be in the presence of the Lord all the days of one’s life.