Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
To connect by phone dial: +1 646 558 8656
A Prayer for the New Year
Leader: When God created you, God did not have to think up who you might be. God eternally knows who you eternally are and are called to be from before the origins of the universe. As Saint Paul says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). (James Finley)
May we choose in this year to become our True Selves, letting go of all that would deter our growth in interior freedom. May Mary, be our guide on this day dedicated her role in the Incarnation.
Opening Song: Mary Did You Know? sung by Pentatonix
First Reading: (Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God)
I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.
If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.
Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.
Second Reading (J. O'Donohue)
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire…
Soon you will be at home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you…
Time for quiet reflection followed by sharing.
- • Is there something that resonated with you in the above poems?
- • What is your hope, your fear, as 2025 unfolds?
- • If you were to have a theme as touchstone for 2025, what would it be?
(Surrender? Trust? Courage? Joy...?)
Petitions
With all struggling families, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all beset by financial struggles, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all seeking employment, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all suffering from mental and physical illness, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all bound by political ideologies, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all the homeless and the destitute, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all burdened with loneliness, fears, or worries, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all living with addictions, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all estranged from the Church, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all who have been abused by the Church, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all enduring religious or ethnic persecution, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all overwhelmed by shame or despair, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all traumatized by violence or neglect, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all targeted by racism or discrimination, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all struggling to let go of grudges, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all working to protect our planet, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
With all seeking peace, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
Personal petitions:
Prayer:
Our Father, Holy Mother, Creator of the Cosmos, Source of Life, You are in my mind, in my garden, in my cup of wine and loaf of bread.
Blessed be your names: Mother, Allah, Goddess, Beloved, Great Spirit, Radiant One, Yahweh, HaShem, Sophia Your presence has come, your will is done
on earth as it is in the cosmos. May we give each other strength, mercy,
tenderness, and joy and forgive each other's failures, silence, pettiness, and forgetfulness as we ask to be forgiven by those we've hurt.
Lead us home to ourselves and each other,
to clarity, to oneness and deliver us from the darkness
of our ignorance and fear.
So we pray and so we receive. Amen
Closing Blessing:
Please extend your hands and pray our closing blessing together
Faithful Companion, in this new year I pray:
To live deeply, with purpose,
To live freely, with detachment,
To live wisely, with detachment,
To live justly, with compassion,
To live lovingly, with fidelity,
To live mindfully, with awareness,
To live gratefully, with generosity,
To live fully, with enthusiasm.
Help me hold this vision and to daily renew it in my heart,
Becoming ever more one with You,
My Truest Self.
(Sr. Joyce Rupp, Out of the Ordinary Prayers, Poems, and Reflections for Every Season)
Leader: May we have growing peace in our hearts, and peace born of justice, in our world.
Closing Hymn: Dona Nobis Pacem sung by Carrie Newcomer
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.