New Year

On this threshold of a new calendar year, I invite you to join me in giving thanks for God’s blessing and presence in our lives. God is with us in our joy and in our sorrow, in our work and in our leisure, in our coming and in our going, and as the sun sets and rises anew. God is our dwelling place.

Join me in prayer:

Oh, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose years never fail and whose mercies are new each returning day: let the radiance of your Spirit renew our lives, warming our hearts and giving light to our minds, that we may pass into the new year in joyful obedience and firm faith; through him who is the beginning and the end, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

However you celebrate tonight, keep these words close at hand:

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary ,bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.