2023 AD

Happy New Year!  January 1 st marked the beginning of a new calendar year.  We celebrate 2023 AD,
marking 2023 years after the birth of Christ.  Some people celebrate 2023 CE, (the Common Era, which
happens to begin at the birth of Christ.  Go figure).  Did you know, though, that if it wasn’t for a monk
named Dionysius, we would be celebrating the year AD 1739? And the AD would stand for ”the year of
Diocletian” instead of “the year of our Lord”.
Diocletian was a Roman emperor who decided that the years should be marked by the time he became
the emperor. Pretty vain, huh? But, that’s what happened.  So in the year AD 247 (the year of
Diocletian), Dionysius, the monk, was working on the calendar and decided that, for the church, time
should be marked by the birth of Christ.  He researched as best he could and pinpointed a time he
thought Christ was born.  He was off about 4 years, but he declared that, for the Catholic Church, the
present time was 525 years after Jesus’ birth.  It was AD (the year of our Lord) 525.  Because of the
heavy influence of “the church”, that dating system soon became the norm.
I like the fact that when we state what year it is, we are telling the world about the birth of Christ!  Even
then non-believers that refer to it as the Common Era, are still using the birth of Christ to mark time.  So
happy new year as measured by the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!  But that brings up
something else related to the birth of Christ.
Because of the wonderful, amazing grace of God, every day is a new day, the beginning of a new era in
our life.  We don’t have to wait until January 1 st to make resolutions to change things in our life that
need changing.  Every day is a new beginning and holds the promise of refreshing and renewal. What is
it that you see the need for doing in your life?  Do you need to pray more?  Eat healthier? Read your
Bible more?  Be nicer to folks?  Then do it!  Do it today?  Thanks be to God for His grace for every day is
a new beginning!
Say good things about your Savior and about His church here in Bluff Park.
Bro. Tony