These are my thoughts for the New Year! Let us thank the Holy Trinity and Theotokos, our intercessor, because she made us worthy of living another year. From now on we should focus to start our year as Christians do, with God. Let us make peace with God before we die! The most important thing should be to renew our life, to keep in mind that with every year that passes, we leave a sin behind that was troubling us for a long time and plant a virtue instead.

Starting with the New Year, our biggest concern should be a different one. The most important thing should be to renew our life, to keep in mind that with every year that passes, we leave a sin behind that was troubling us for a long time and plant instead a virtue. To forgive the faults of the people who brought us grief, forgive everyone and start the New Year with a pure heart and faith in God. Do not start your year in pubs, drinking and partying. Because if you start your first day well, your entire year will be a good one!

Visit the villages now, tonight. You will see the hell on earth. This is how people know to thank God that He gave them another year of life! But then death will come and will strangulate man, and he will be unable to tell the priest his sins, because the devil tied his tongue! He will wish that God gave him another hour. But He doesn’t! It is written: when your hour comes, it comes. You would like to pray: “Father, give me one more minute!” But He doesn’t! You had enough time! God is too right! He gave you time but you didn’t want to pray, to repent, to weep! He gave you so many years of life and you lived carelessly. And then you will see that there will be no time to repent in the hour of heath.

Thus, we shall think that if a year has passed, we need to weep to God, because we did not do anything good to thank Him that He helped us through His mercy to pass another 365 days to reach today.

Everyone should thank Him. The entire creation. Because life, creation and time are in the hand of God. We need to thank Him so that He may not bestow His wrath upon us!

We are waiting for God’s mercy but there will come a time when the minutes run out, because there will come the hour of death! There will come God’s justice that no one can avoid! Not even the emperors. Where are the kingdoms? Where are the pharaohs of Egypt? Where are the sultans of Turkey? Where are the kings of Germany? Where are the feared emperors? Where are the cities? Where is the city of Pompeii and Carthage and all the old cities who disappeared after the earthquake?

Where are the world’s cities? Where are the philosophers? Where are all those who worn a sceptre and whose armours shun as the sun? Where are they? They became dust. This is God’s justice and woe of those who spend their time in vain. The Great Apostle Paul said “Redeem the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). We will ask to live one more minute and God will not allow it! Because we live our life without any concerns and we act as we were immortal. We are nothing but smoke!

These are my thoughts for the New Year! Let us thank the Holy Trinity and Theotokos, our intercessor, because she made us worthy of living another year. From now on we should focus to start our year as Christians do, with God. Let us make peace with God before we die! Amen!

(Translation from: Ne vorbește Părintele Cleopa, volumul IX, Editura Episcopiei Romanului, 1999, pp. 43-47)