New Year's Eve Prayers

 Concluding the series of prayers with these for the First Sunday after Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

 Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer)

 O Loving Creator, for our sake you became human and were born in a lowly stable; Help us always to remember the forgotten, uplift the lowly, and give strength to the powerless, all for your love’s sake; in the name of the Source, the Word, and the Spirit. Amen (Women’s Uncommon Prayers)

 Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer)

 This life is made up of so many beginnings and so many endings.

We start new jobs and leave old ones.
We move to new cities and leave our childhood hobbies in our parents’ basement (Sorry, Mom)
We become new people slowly (hopefully kinder and funnier?).
Friends and relationships come and go.
Dreams blossom and then they wither.

And we find ourselves here once again at the precipice of change.
Afraid to let go, and afraid of what will happen if we don’t.
Might this be a place of blessing too?

Blessed are we standing in the hallways
between closed doors
and ones still to come,
between the old and the new,
between the worn-in
and the doesn’t-quite-yet-fit,
between who we were
and who we might become.

God, make it remotely possible to grow and change,
become open to new adventures, and untethered to routine or to the same-old.
Because the anxiety rising in my shoulders and filly my throat tells me I am unlikely, unwilling, to step forward.

Blessed are we who take a minute to look over our shoulder at all we learned from what was,
the people we became, the people who loved us into becoming.
The peace that comes with familiarity.

Blessed are we who trust this timing, and who open our hearts anew to change, to new friends, to hope.
Nervous, maybe heavy-hearted, but brimming with gratitude for a life so beautiful that it hurts to say goodbye.

Blessed are we, turning our eyes ahead toward a new path not yet mapped.
God, give us courage to take this next step, and enough for the one after that, too.
Remind us that you hav gone before, and behind, and around, and are with us now.

In our leaving, in our arriving, in our changes, expected or shocking, surprise us with who we might become. (The Lives we Actually Have/Kate Bowler)

 

Beloved, we are called to love those in need:  
Let us love in truth and action.  
Beloved, we are called to be people of peace:  
Let us love one another.  
Beloved, we are called to be people of healing:   
Let us love not only God, but our brothers and sisters, also.  
May we abide in God’s love.  
May God’s love abide in us.  (Daily Prayer for All Seasons)

See you in 2024 when we meet "The Other Wise Man"