Choose to Love Him
Five Ways to Radically Love Jesus and bring the Blessing Effect to 2025
Every New Year comes with traditions that are to remind us of the JOY AND HOPE of the NEW YEAR!
It is through those traditions, when I begin to feel God’s blessings in my life, and I find ways that I can bless others.
This year, there are five ways to ensure the New Year traditions help anchor my radical love for God and begin a Year of Blessing Effects!
I am sharing with you to encourage you do the same!
1. Choose a Mantra/Quote for the Year
I like to do this on January 1st with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. I choose a phrase or quote that becomes my daily mantra, a mantra that I can say over and over that overflows to my heart. I know the new year will bring many moments of needing help. I will repeat my mantra so I feel held in the arms of Mary and the Love of God.
My two phrases for this year are:
Mother Mary, mother me.
Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything.
2. Bless your Home
Every year, we are invited to bless our home on the Feast of Epiphany, January 6th. This Sacred tradition is still carried out throughout the world. We invite you to bless your home in 2025.
CHALK Use chalk to write 20 + C + M + B + 25 above your front door. Gather your family and co-workers together and ask for God’s blessing for all those who reside in and visit your space: May Christ bless our home and workplace and remain with us throughout the new year. Amen. Traditionally on the feast of Epiphany, on January 6th, Catholics bless their homes by writing the letters C, M and B and the numbers of the year, for example 2025, at the top of their doors. The letters stand for the names of the three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They also represent the Latin blessing Christus mansionem benedicat, which means “May Christ bless this house.” The “+” signs represent the cross and the numbers 20, 25 are the year. With time, the chalk will fade. As it does, we let the meaning of the symbols written sink into the depths of our hearts. Now, offer the Epiphany Prayer.
EPIPHANY BLESSING PRAYER Visit, O blessed Lord, this home with the gladness of your presence. Bless all who live or visit here with the gift of Your love; and grant that we may manifest Your love to each other and to all whose lives we touch. May we grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of You; guide, comfort, and strengthen us in peace, now and forever. Amen.
BOTTLE FOR HOLY WATER Sprinkle holy water around your front door as you pray for all those who enter to be washed clean of anything unlike love and to be renewed and filled with God’s love and blessing. Continue sprinkling at the entrance to every room within your space and all four corners of each room—clearing your space and inviting in abundant love and blessings.
REPEAT FOR YEARS TO COME Each year, remember this invitation for the Holy Spirit to be present in your home and surround you with love, joy, peace and protection.
3. Pick a Saint for the Year
At My Saint My Hero we have a bucket full of saint cards! Each member of our team randomly picks a saint for the year that they carry with them through the year. IT HAS ALWAYS been EXACTLY the prayer or virtue that we need for the year. I encourage you to get to know the saints and find that one special saint that will intercede and guide you.
4. Practice
Set time aside daily to practice your faith through prayer and talking to Jesus through the Scriptures. Keep your Bible in a visible place and take time each day to read, to let His words touch your heart.
I was at a friend’s house, and on her kitchen counter was her Bible, alongside a cup of highlighters and pens. I asked if she was doing a bible study or something this morning, and she said, “I keep my bible right here in the kitchen as my daily reminder to open it up and read for at least 5 minutes.
Another friend has her Bible near her coffee maker so that she can easily open it and have her morning coffee with Jesus.
5. The Rosary
I love saying the Rosary, it is through this prayer that I feel Mary carrying me to her Son, our Savior, Jesus. On January 1st, Ascension Press will begin its Rosary in a Year Podcast. Let’s put the Rosary into practice this 2025.
May you be blessed with Health, Happiness, and Holiness this New Year.
What a great year it will be with our Jubilee Year for the Vatican, the 350 Year Anniversary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Canonization of NEW SAINTS! (April 27, 2025, Blessed Carlos Acutis will become a saint!)
—Amy D'Ambra/My Saint My Hero Founder and Co-Owner
