As some of you may know, Belmont Abbey College inaugurated our new president earlier this month. Once students returned from Christmas break, we all gathered to celebrate a Mass of the Holy Spirit, to meet the president, and to hear his faculty address at a special luncheon in the ballroom. Of course this was – and is – an exciting time for our campus community, as we get to know President Jeff Talley and his hopes for the college, but today I wanted to share with you something he said during his faculty address, which struck me as relevant not just to Belmont Abbey but to all of us, especially at the start of a new year. “We are small,” he said, “and that is not a weakness.”
It’s something that’s lingered with me as I’ve thought about shiny, new 2026 and the ways we tend to pressure ourselves to change all our habits at once. I suspect we’re all familiar with the temptation… to become the fitter, wiser, more productive versions of ourselves from sheer willpower, starting January 1.
Certainly there’s nothing wrong with setting goals or making resolutions, especially if we’re taking small, consistent steps that challenge us to become more fully the people God created us to be. Pray a decade of the rosary. Go for a walk at lunch. Check in with a friend or a colleague who’s struggling.
But we are not – nor will we ever be – perfect, and the perverse reality is that by expecting to make drastic changes overnight, we’re less likely even to build the good habits we need in order to grow. I might like to think I’m big and strong enough to power through a host of ambitious resolutions on my own steam – or that failing to do so is cause for paralyzing discouragement. But recognizing my humanness means recognizing my smallness and my dependence on God. It means both being patient with myself and realizing that my very smallness can invite God’s strength into places I could never fill alone.
The Benedictine hallmark of humility isn’t about self-denigration. It’s about seeing ourselves as God sees us. We are small. And that is not a weakness. Because we are loved. Already and utterly.
I recently had the chance to meet my two-month-old niece for the first time: to hold her, and rock her, and watch for those sweet, funny half-smiles babies make in their sleep. Looking down at her snug little self, I felt so much love, and I remember marveling – not just at her, at this endearing, miraculous little person small enough to fit in my arms – but also at how much her presence called me to love her. A baby doesn’t have to earn our love; we don’t think twice about giving it. She doesn’t have to do anything, make anything, prove anything. And it struck me, looking down at her, that God looks at us this way.
You’re not asked to prove yourself in feats of greatness. You’re only asked to rest your smallness in His Love, to keep your life snug in His arms and to trust in Him.
This weekend – and this year, as we inevitably face things that seem bigger than we can manage – let’s try to remember that we are small. We are small, and that is not a weakness. Because God is our strength.
