The Parish Staff’s Prayer for the New Year

This prayer by Diana Macalintal originally appeared in Today's Parish Minister, Vol. 40, No. 1, January, 2008

The Parish Staff’s Prayer for the New Year

God of every time and season,
you give us another year to fill with new beginnings.
We have so many dreams for our parish this year,
so many promises we want to keep,
so many new habits we want to learn.
Yet so much from last year is still left undone.

Erase our failings of the old year,
clear away the decay left by our complacency,
and wipe clean the slate of broken covenants from the year gone by.

As the calendar changes and the old gives way to the new,
help us not to dwell on the past
but to use its memory to move us ever forward to your kingdom.

Renew our hope and strengthen our resolve
to keep our new year’s promises to this parish
so that we may serve your people faithfully through every season
and walk joyfully with them each day of the year.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.