An easy way to find new friends

The onset of a new calendar year is often met with resolutions to improve your own life. Which is interesting because many times, the best parts of the year are the times that you spend with your friends, not just yourself.

So, how can you make new friends, especially during a pandemic when social gatherings are limited or non-existent?

An easy way to find new friends is to simply let them pick you.

If you are thinking that this sounds ridiculous, I implore you to suspend your skepticism for a bit while I share with you one of my favorite traditions: Choosing a companion saint for the new year.

This New Year's Day tradition actually comes from Saint Faustina Kowalska, a nun in Poland who died in 1938. She wrote in her published diary, "There is a custom among us of drawing by lot, on New Year's Day, special Patrons for ourselves for the whole year." (Diary: Divine Mercy in my Soul "New Year 1935 entry.)

Following in this way, our parish, St. Vincent de Paul provides baskets with numerous slips of paper that contain the names and feast days of saints. To participate, we simply a say a Hail Mary and then select a piece of paper.

In this way, the saint that is selected can become a new-found friend to share the year with. Each found his or her way to holiness in a variety of incredible ways, so each soul has innumerable spiritual gifts to share as each of try to love Jesus more deeply.

Of course, there are other creative ways to let new-found saint friends find you if your church doesn't provide "saints in a basket." You can:

- Use your search engine of choice and look up Saint Feast Day on _______. Use your birthday, anniversary, or special day of the year. There are several websites like Catholic Tradition or Franciscan Media who provide online calendars of saint feast days.

- Think about your favorite hobby or past time. Research if there is a patron saint of that or related activity.

- Consider your family's country or origin. There are many patron saints of countries around the world and sometimes it's even Mary, the Mother of God. You can find a list of American saints at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website.

The stories of the saints are meant to provide hope in a world where overcoming obstacles and pursing holiness seems impossible. Their examples always have something to teach us about ourselves and how we bring light and love on this side of Paradise.

Want to meet the Mahoney family's 3 new friends for 2021?