January 1
Saints of the Day...and Events
 

Three Feasts are celebrated on January 1:

    1- The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
    2- Circumcision of the Lord
    3- New Year Celebration

1- The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God:

    It is a good way to start the New Year, with a Solemnity, Mary, Mother of God.

    It is the first Marian Dogma as declared by the Church at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431 (Lk 1:31-35, Lk 1:43, Mt 1:21)... and it is the most important of the the Five Dogmas on Mary

    The Council of Ephesus  with more than 200 bishops, presided over by St. Cyril of Alexandria representing Pope Celestine l, defined the true personal unity of Christ, declared Mary the Mother of God (theotokos) against Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, and renewed the condemnation of Pelagius...

    These are the words of the Council about the Mother of God: 
    "Therefore, because the holy virgin bore in the flesh God who was united hypostatically with the flesh, for that reason we call her mother of God, not as though the nature of the Word had the beginning of its existence from the flesh (for "the Word was in the beginning and the Word was God and the Word was with God", and he made the ages and is coeternal with the Father and craftsman of all things), but because, as we have said, he united to himself hypostatically the human and underwent a birth according to the flesh from her womb".
... "1. If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is God in truth, and therefore that the holy virgin is the mother of God (for she bore in a fleshly way the Word of God become flesh), let him be anathema" (the first of 12 anathemas). 

    Mary is called Theotokos, meaning "God-bearer" or "the Mother of God", because she bore the Son of God in her womb and from her He took His humanity. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, in the Bible, recognized this reality when she called Mary, "the Mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:43).

    Mary is the Mother of Jesus, just as He is, and Jesus is God. The Mother of God, as my mother is my mother, just as I am, of Dr. Dominguez, even if she didn't study any medicine.

    The Bible also says in the words of Mary herself: "All generations shall call me blessed" (Luke 1:48)...      

    It is the same prophecy made by the Holy Spirit in Psalm 45, the Psalm of the King and the Queen, in the last verse says about the Queen: "I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations; therefore the peoples will praise you for ever and ever".

    This prophecy has been fulfilled during the last 2000 years, and in superabundance!:

    - The Mother of God has been the woman on earth to whom more paintings and poems and songs have been dedicated, by the best artists of the six continents, to praise her with all kind of art... and those poems and songs have been song daily by millions of Christians... and those paintings are in millions of homes to honor her, praise the Lord and the Bible!.

    - Mary is the woman to whom more sculptures and chapels have been dedicated in these 2000 years, and more temples, and cathedrals, and basilicas... by the best artists... to praise her with the sculpture and architecture!... and millions of persons have those sculptures at home to honor her, and go periodically to those chapels and cathedrals o praise the Mother of Jesus, our Savior, praise the Lord!.

    - Millions of people were daily her medals and scapulars, to praise her as Mother!... and millions of persons pray the Rosary daily, to praise the Mother of Jesus, including the Popes, the Cardinals, the thousands of bishops, the millions of pastors and priests and deacons and nuns, during every day for the last 2000 years, and millions of faithful laymen Christians... and every day that legion increases, praise God.

    - In fact, every second literally, of every day, for the last 2000 years, some one has been repeating the words of the Bible in some part of the world, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus"... (Lk.1:42)

    ... Indeed this prophecy of the Bible on the Mother of Jesus has been overwhelmingly fulfilled, as all the prophecies of the Bible that are fulfilled to the letter and in superabundance, praise Jesus!.

    Let me ask: What about you and your church?... if only you and your church were on earth, would the prophecy of the Bible on Mary would be fulfilled today?...

    ... Indeed, it is bewildering that some professing Christians who claim to believe the Bible never call Mary blessed nor honor her who bore and raised God the Son in His human flesh.

    The Five Dogmas on Mary... and 3 more coming

2- Circumcision of the Lord:
    As Christ wished to fulfil the law and to show His descent according to the flesh from Abraham, He, though not bound by the law, was circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2.21), and received the sublime name expressive of His office, Jesus, (Saviour). He was, as Saint Paul says, "made under the law", that is, He submitted to the Mosaic Dispensation, "that he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4.4-5). "The Christ, in order to fulfil all justice, was required to endure this humiliation, and bear in His body the stigma of the sins which He had taken upon Himself." The circumcision took place, not in the Temple, though painters sometimes so represent it, but in some private house, where the Holy Family had found a rather late hospitality. The public ceremony in the synagogue, which is now the usage, was introduced later.
    Circumcism of the Lord

3- New Year:
  It is a very joyful day, a day of hope and a day do some reflection and promises, of changes of our way of life.
    It is a day for a Christian to look at the last year: Family, work, attitudes, failures, successes...yes, and one year closer to eternal Heaven.
    A day to make some commitments on out family, work, attitudes... the most important one would be become closer to Christ, from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from glory to glory, from failure to failure, from success to success (Jn.1:16, Rom.1:17, 2Cor.3:18)

Events of January 1 - Saints of January 1

http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0101.htm

January 1: Mary, Mother of God - Solemnity