Prayer of Turning at the New Year

Spirit of Life, Source of Love, you who know our struggles and failures as well as we know them ourselves, be with us as we enter into this time of reflection. Give us the courage to travel through a moral inventory of our lives, to notice the places where we have missed opportunities to live our values, to acknowledge the times when we have done harm. Inspire us with the will and the means to change for the better. Guide us to make amends where we can. Turn us toward life in the coming year: a life of growth, a life of compassion, a life of learning from experience.

Eternal One of Blessing, we ask these things not only in our individual lives, but also in our communal life. Lead us to fresh understanding of systemic oppression, of dehumanization, of callous disregard for the neighbors we have failed to acknowledge. Open our hearts to the words and ideas of those most impacted, and join our hands in the work of rebuilding this world from love.

Beloved unseen, there are those among us and connected to us who are suffering. Guide us to join you in the spirit of kindness, to support systems of care, and to offer our presence when we can. We pray for all who are affected by police violence. We pray for refugees around the world, and for all those affected by unjust immigration policies. We pray for those resisting totalitarianism. We pray for those bearing witness to the destruction of their way of life through ecological devastation. We pray for those who are ill, who are grieving, who are struggling, who are seeking recovery, who are working to make a change. Let your love wash over them and us, and bring us into life-giving right relationship.

Singer of skies and mountains and pastures, in this season of turning toward life, remind us to be grateful, and to celebrate joy where we find it. We lift up our loved ones who have achieved milestones. We give thanks for the beauty of this day, for this community, and for the opportunity to be together. This space holds the entirety of our lives, the highs and lows. With all of these things on our hearts, we continue our prayer in silence.

(Silence)

Amen.

Red pomegranates on a table.

Days of Awe

By Ben Soule

From WorshipWeb

We feel the season turning. The early sunset glancing through the red-tinged leaves. The newspaper arriving in the cool morning air. The flock of migrating swallows. A feeling of being on the edge of something new. These are the Days of Awe. A time to welcome a new year and a time to make the old...

Days of Awe