KARL BARTH’S PRAYER FOR THE NEW YEAR

O Lord, our Father!

We have gathered here at the turn of the year because we do not want to be alone but want to be with each other, and together be united with you.

Our hearts are filled with somber thoughts as we reflect on our misdeeds of the past year.

And our ears are deafened by the voices of the radio and in the newspapers, with their numerous predictions for the coming year.

Instead we want to hear your word, your voice, your assurance, your guidance. We know that you are in our midst, and are eager to give us all that we need, whether we ask or not.

On this night we ask for one thing only: that you collect our scattered thoughts, getting rid of the confused and defiant thoughts that may distract us, and thus enable us to concentrate on your limitless generosity to us.

You were abundantly generous to us last year, and will be no less generous to us next year, and in every year to come.

Fill us with gratitude to you. Amen.

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An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor

“To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology.

All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop,stir.

Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone.  In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.”

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Richard Rohr: “The people who know God well—the mystics, the hermits, the prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God—always meet a lover, not a dictator. God is never found to be an abusive father or a manipulative mother, but a lover who is more than we dared hope for.”