Discover a New Year December 31, 2025By Rita Buettner Catholic Review Filed Under: Commentary, The Domestic Church When I was a child, we didn’t watch much TV, and our television at home was always a black-and-white model. Even though color televisions were readily available, my mother didn’t want that technology in our home. So, when my siblings and I gathered on the living room floor to take in shows such as “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers Neighborhood,” we watched them in black and white. You can’t miss what you’ve never known, and I really didn’t miss the color. Your imagination fills in the cracks, and you can follow the stories just fine. What I didn’t realize was that some of the movies we watched were produced in color and some were in black and white. In fact, it was several years later when I learned that “The Wizard of Oz” starts in sepia tones and changes to color when Dorothy opens the door and sees Munchkinland in the Land of Oz. I think I was in college when I saw that happen for the first time, and I was astonished. Every time I had watched that scene, I had felt the sense of wonder as this little girl encountered a new world, but I never knew that the whole scene was transformed into vibrant color. What a powerful way to show the dramatic change as Dorothy moves from one phase in her life to another, traveling from the world she has known to a brand-new one. As we move from one year into another, I’ve been thinking about transitions. In some ways, the start of a new year is nothing more than the flip of a calendar page. Time passes, and the change from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 might not be that extraordinary. But the change from year to year marks a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past and look toward the future. We are turning the page and embracing a new beginning. A new year brings new chances and new challenges. It offers the unknown and limitless possibility. It invites us to follow an expected course or try unchartered waters. A new year can bring excitement or fear. It can come with a sense of loss of what we leave behind. It can also bring renewed hope for what we have still to discover. Whatever lies ahead, I hope we can be a little like Dorothy as she opens that door and sees a whole new world before her. Even though we may carry burdens we already have into the new year, this time offers a sense of newness and discovery. And we bring to the new year all the skills and knowledge we have learned – along with a deep faith and an abiding hope that we can help make tomorrow a little brighter, a little better. After all, God invites us to meet each day with a sense of renewed purpose and a focus on being our very best selves – the people he created us to be. “Don’t despair over your shortcomings,” St. Francis de Sales said. “Start over each day. You make spiritual progress by beginning again and again.” And so, we open the door on the new year. We might see this new time in muted sepia tones or we might see it unfolding in vibrant technicolor. However we feel about this new year, we have the chance to begin again. And we hold onto the faith that we are not alone. God walks this journey with us, guiding us step by step, joining us for whatever joys and sorrows this next year will hold. He knows the next chapter in our story, and he holds us in the palm of his hand. Read More The Domestic Church While you wait Grace times two The Crayon costume Radio Interview: Rita Buettner and Faith for Working Moms Crabs and conversation Listen for God this summer Copyright © 2025 Catholic Review Media Print
