I prayed this morning with this song by The Porter’s Gate: Teach Us Your Ways.
Such a fitting prayer as we lean into 2022 and all it will hold. A prayer that we will:
Learn from one another.
Learn to love each other.
Give ourselves for one another.
Weep with one another.
There will certainly be lots to learn this year, lots to give, and tears to be shed. This is life. And we are learning, this is life in times of uncertainty and ambiguity.
May we live into it all with love.
My prayer at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019 plays in my head with “Flourishing (Psalm 119)” – a song by Sandra McCracken – as its soundtrack. So I did what I do and made a video prayer set to this beautiful song with some of my photos from 2018.
May we give thanks
for all the ways we lived and loved in 2018
from our best selves, for the best of everyone
May we remember
those times when we weren’t so able
to be good and kind for whatever reason
and resolve to try again
May we honor
those we love and all we hold dear
through our words and our actions
for the common good
May we recognize beauty,
Live gently, and flourish together
as we walk in the way of peace.
Amen
Another new year is coming, ready or not. Balls will drop, champagne will be drunk, some will go to bed early and most of us will wake up in 2016.
This year my new year musings coincide with the end of my first year in elected leadership of my religious community. 2015 meant:
-an end to my grad school experience
-a move to New Jersey and revisiting familiar territory with new eyes
-building community with a new group of Sister housemates
-meetings and travel and opportunities to visit our csjp community in all three regions
-and every thing in between.
It has been a good year filled with endings and new beginnings. January 7, our Community Day of Thanksgiving, will mark the beginning of year 2 of my leadership adventure. Much is in progress, some important projects are just beginning, and there are others still on the horizon, not to mention those surprises good and bad which are bound to come.
There is lots of uncertainty, some anxiety, but a deep peace and faith that the One who calls us together will guide our feet into the way of peace, through the next set of endings and beginnings on this path called life. And that is a good place to be as we say goodbye to 2015 and move into the new year and all it will hold.
At the Corner of Susan and St. Joseph 