I did not write a New Year post when the calendar turned. Not because the moment lacked meaning, but because our life as Warrior Penitents is not governed by dates as much as it is by fidelity.
Still, the beginning of a year invites reflection on our faith and on our journey. Not on resolutions that fade, but on who we are walking with and why we walk at all along a path less traveled.
As we step into this year, the Community of Warrior Penitents is called to renew its focus, not by adding burdens, but by returning to what is essential: Christ, fraternity, prayer, and service lived faithfully together.
We Do Not Walk Alone
One of the deepest wounds many veterans carry is isolation, whether by force or by choice. After years of shared mission and mutual reliance, civilian life can feel fragmented and solitary. Our community exists precisely to answer that wound. We are not recreating the military, rather we are forming something deeper: Christian fraternity between brothers and sisters in arms and faith.
We are not a collection of individuals pursuing holiness on parallel paths. We are brothers and sisters bound by a shared Rule of Life, walking toward Christ side by side, developing depths of strength in our bonds between one another.
This year, let us be intentional about presence:
- Check in on one another.
- Pray for one another by name, immediately when in need.
- Show up, even when it is inconvenient. Be the brother or sister who can be counted on regardless of the day or time.
- Refuse the quiet drift toward isolation. Seek fraternity and community among one another.
Fraternity is not an accessory to our faith. It is one of the ways Christ chooses to sustain us.
Focus Before Force
The temptation at the start of any year is to do more, through resolutions to pray more, read more, serve more. While discipline matters, focus matters more. Maybe it is time to strengthen something that is already part of your life to grow stronger in your faith.
Our Rule of Life already gives us direction:
- A life rooted in prayer.
- Faith expressed through works of mercy and charity.
- Simplicity, humility, and readiness to serve.
Rather than adding new demands, let this year be about greater faithfulness to what we have already embraced. A well-prayed Divine Office. Scripture read attentively and meditated upon. Service offered without recognition, the only witness being those served and our Lord. Small acts done consistently out of charity and love.
Holiness is not achieved through intensity alone, but through perseverance and consistency, and a willing to get up and begin again after falling.
Active Contemplation, Lived Together
Active contemplation is prayer united to action and is not meant to be lived in isolation. Our prayer shapes our service, and our service deepens our prayer. When we share that rhythm as a community, it becomes a source of strength.
This year, let us allow our common prayer and common mission to bind us more closely. Let our prayer build bridges between one another. Let our service sharpen our love for the poor and those in need. Let accountability be an expression of care, not control.
In a divided world, a community that prays, serves, and remains united becomes a powerful witness and does more than demonstrate our faith, it shares it with the hearts of others.
Faith That Endures
This year will bring challenges, some expected and others not. Fatigue, doubt, and distraction will test each and every one of us. But endurance is something we understand well.
As Warrior Penitents, we are not called to perfection, and we knowingly will never attain it on this side of Heaven. We are called to faithfulness and action. To return again and again to Christ. To rise when we fall. To remain when leaving would be easier. To help our brother and sisters in arms to carry their burden, together.
Let this be a year marked not by grand achievements, but by quiet perseverance.
A Simple Intention for the Year
If we were to name a single intention for the year ahead, let it be this:
To grow closer to Christ by growing closer to one another.
Grow in your prayer life.
Grow in fraternity, within your community.
Grow in service with a willingness to serve anyone in need.
May we be men and women who carry one another’s burdens, who seek Christ in the poor, and who remain rooted in the humility and simplicity of St. Francis.
We walk forward together, we are all penitents, brothers and sisters, servants of Christ.
May God bless you this year and may you finish 2026 stronger in your faith and relationships.
In Christ and Prayer,
WP
The Community of Warrior Penitents 