New Year Prayer: The Year Ahead

Here’s a New Year’s prayer written by Jane Deren.

Prayer for the New Year

In the year ahead,
Lord of New Beginnings,
stretch our souls
and move us
into new awareness
of the human family,
their needs and their longings.

Make these into
our needs, our longings
so we move more confidently
from our small selves
to a deeper sense of community
where our resolutions reflect
our interdependence.

Help us recognize the
possibilities you have offered
to us as a people,
so we can commit to practice
the Hope that happens
when we gather gratefully
in your Name and we hold up to you
this fragile, precious world.

Grant us all the grace
in this year ahead
to sow the seeds of justice
and to gather peace in our day.
Amen

— Jane Deren, posted on the Education for Justice website. 

For more worship resources for the New Year, click on New Year in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page, or visit this Index of New Year Resources.