Note to myself: How to clean up after New Year’s?

Begin by thanking God for a day at home with nothing much to do and resolve to spend it in true recreation and reflection. Recall the words of one of your friends, who offered the blessing before the meal last night at the party: “As we begin another new year, let us put our hands to the plow and not look back.”

Put your hand to the plow first by going around the house sprinkling all the rooms with holy water, saying, “Lord, bless this mess.”

Let the dogs up from the basement to snarf up the crumbs and other edible detritus. Be thankful for every child who snuck food into the various forbidden zones and spilled something. Gratefully pick up left-behind socks and sweatshirts. Thank God for the joy and energy children bring daily into your home and into your life.

Take the crockpot of leftover chili out of the fridge and put it on low to heat up for dinner. Thank God for your mom, who loaned you the crockpot for the party. Remember the countless other favors, little and huge, that your mom has done for you since before you were born. Be thankful that she’s still in good health, able to work and care for herself and her home, and able to enjoy her grandchildren.

Load the dishwasher and say a prayer for every party guest who dutifully inscribed his or her name on a plastic cup with a permanent marker. Think about how you’ve known some of these people since you were all teenagers, how you’ve seen each other court beloveds and get married, buy first homes, give birth to children, bury moms and dads, agonize over tough decisions, develop gray hair and, in the best cases, grow in love for Jesus. Thank God for giving you and your children a close-knit community of faith.

Pray that all of the people in your life will be around for the next party and be able to use their cups again. Find the church bulletin under a couch cushion and thank God for your parish priests, how they live their entire lives so that you, your children and several hundred other people just like you will have the presence of Jesus in their lives, in word and in sacrament. Resolve to pray for them more and make even more effort to tell them how much you appreciate them.

Wipe counters and throw away trash. Put the Advent wreath back in its place at the center of the kitchen table. As you light the white tapers, blessed at church on Candlemas Day last year and placed on Christmas Day to replace the purple and pink candles, thank God for the Catholic Church and for the holy season of Christmas — the blessings of which extend into the new year rather than ending with an anti-climactic and almost audible thud on Dec. 26 (the way it does out there in the world).

Now that the house is tidied up, brew a cup of tea. Sit down. Thank God for everything that transpired in the past year: the joys and the sufferings, the lessons learned, the countless opportunities to grow in holiness, even the ones you missed. Remember the events of the past and what they taught you. Don’t dwell. Just remember. Give everything to God.

Put your hands to the plow. Fix your eyes on the Morning Star and push ahead, continuing your pursuit of the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). 

Clare Siobhan writes from

Westmont, Illinois.