A blessed and happy New Year to you. While many desire a “white” Christmas, this year we experienced the “white” for the start of the new year, the new decade. This is a time of reflection on the past year’s events in our personal lives, in our communities, our nation, etc. 

It also tends to be a time of wonderment as to what our lives will be like in 2020. We don’t have the “crystal ball” to refer to, which is OK because I think it would take some of the adventure out of life. 

This past year, I suspect, was for all of us a year of mixed blessing. It had its cold bitter moments and more than enough heartaches and headaches. I am sure, as well, it had its joys and its newness, its extraordinary blessings and providence. Whatever the year was, it deserves to be celebrated with expressions of gratitude and affection. 

May this new year be one of faith and trust in the Lord as we live each day in the midst of God’s love and blessings. With that divine help, may we grow the clarity of 2020-vision to be able to recognize the Lord’s presence, and trust in the truth that all of life is in God’s care. In that spirit, I share this New Year’s Blessing Prayer with you.

Lord, You who live outside of time, and reside in the imperishable moment, we ask Your blessing in this New Year, Your gift of time to us. Bless our clocks and watches, You who kindly direct us to observe the passing of minutes and hours. May they make us aware of the miracle of each second of life we experience. May these our ticking servants help us not to miss that which is important while You keep us from machine-like routine. May we ever be free from being clock watchers and instead become time lovers.

Bless our calendars, these ordered lists of days, weeks and months, of holidays, holydays, fasts and feasts, all our special days of remembering. May these servants, our calendars, once reserved for the royal few, for magi and pyramid priests, now grace our homes and our lives. 

May they remind us of birthdays and other gift-days, that all life is meant for celebration and contemplation. 

Bless, Lord, this new year, each of its 365 days and nights. Bless us with new moons and full moons. Bless us with happy seasons and a long life. Grant to us, Lord, the new year’s gift of a year of love. Amen.

(Prayers for the Domestic Church, Ed Hays 1979)

— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Msgr. Larry M. Bakke is pastor for St. Clare of Assisi Parish and director of the Apostolate to the Handicapped for the Diocese of Madison.