Loving God 
we thank you for this past year 
with its positive moments and its more difficult ones. 
We thank you for the love we have received from family and friends 
And for the successes we have had at work and at home. 
 
We thank you also for the hard moments 
The moments that we struggled with 
the moments of challenge; the moments of uncertainty; 
the moments when we have been afraid 
for our safety and of those we love; 
the moments when we lost those dear to us. 
 
As we look forward to the next year 
we ask for Your grace and blessing. 
 
Give us health and strength; 
give us faith and hope. 
Send us Your Spirit. 
Give us peace with the choices we make 
Grant us joy as we look ahead and discern the future. 
Most of all give us the love that will guide us 
through whatever challenges we come across. 
 
Help us to walk beside each other with patience and forgiveness 
putting our hands in the hands of Your Son Jesus. 
He guides us and strengthens us. 
He is always by our side 
He gives us hope 
He helps us see beyond the small ‘now’ 
to the bigger picture and the wider dream 
The dream imagined for us by You, our Father. 
 
You who live and love 
Forever and ever. Amen. 

SOURCE: https://www.jesuits.global/2020/12/30/new-year-prayer/ 

TAGS: Prayer

Enjoy this poignant poem entitled "Christmas" by Sir John Betjeman, an English poet who studied under T. S. Eliot and C. S. Lewis. This poem is considered one of the greatest Christmas poems ever written. 

The bells of waiting Advent ring, 
The Tortoise stove is lit again 
And lamp-oil light across the night 
Has caught the streaks of winter rain 
In many a stained-glass window sheen 
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green. 

The holly in the windy hedge 
And round the Manor House the yew 
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge, 
The altar, font and arch and pew, 
So that the villagers can say 
'The church looks nice' on Christmas Day. 

Provincial Public Houses blaze, 
Corporation tramcars clang, 
On lighted tenements I gaze, 
Where paper decorations hang, 
And bunting in the red Town Hall 
Says 'Merry Christmas to you all'. 

And London shops on Christmas Eve 
Are strung with silver bells and flowers 
As hurrying clerks the City leave 
To pigeon-haunted classic towers, 
And marbled clouds go scudding by 
The many-steepled London sky. 

And girls in slacks remember Dad, 
And oafish louts remember Mum, 
And sleepless children's hearts are glad. 
And Christmas-morning bells say 'Come!' 
Even to shining ones who dwell 
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel. 

And is it true?  And is it true, 
This most tremendous tale of all, 
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue, 
A Baby in an ox's stall? 
The Maker of the stars and sea 
Become a Child on earth for me? 

And is it true ?  For if it is, 
No loving fingers tying strings 
Around those tissued fripperies, 
The sweet and silly Christmas things, 
Bath salts and inexpensive scent 
And hideous tie so kindly meant, 

No love that in a family dwells, 
No carolling in frosty air, 
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells 
Can with this single Truth compare - 
That God was man in Palestine 
And lives today in Bread and Wine. 

TAGS: Reflection