Welcoming 2010...
The
New
Year Page
Poetry and
prayer for the turning of the year
Lord, for the Years
Lord, for the years your love has kept
and guided,
Urged and inspired us, cheered us on
our way,
Sought us and saved us, pardoned and
provided:
Lord of the years, we bring our thanks
today.
Lord, for that word, the word of life
which fires us,
Speaks to our hearts and sets our
souls ablaze,
Teaches and trains, rebukes us and
inspires us:
Lord of the word, receive your
people's praise.
Lord, for our land in this our
generation,
Spirits oppressed by pleasure, wealth
and care:
For young and old, for commonwealth
and nation,
Lord of our land, be pleased to hear
our prayer.
Lord, for our world where men disown
and doubt you,
Loveless in strength, and comfortless
in pain,
Hungry and helpless, lost indeed
without you:
Lord of the world, we pray that Christ
may reign.
Lord for ourselves; in living power
remake us -
self on the cross, and Christ upon the
throne,
past put behind us, for the future
take us:
Lord of our lives, to live for Christ
alone.
The Ending of the Year
When trees did show no leaves
And grass no daisies had,
And fields had lost their
sheaves,
And streams in ice were clad,
And day of light was shorn,
And wind had got a spear,
Jesus Christ was born
In the ending of the year.
Like green leaves when they
grow,
He shall for comfort be;
Like life in streams shall
flow,
For running water He;
He shall raise hope like corn
For barren fields to bear,
And therefore He was born
In the ending of the year.
Like daisies to the grass,
His innocence He‘ll bring;
In keenest winds that pass
His flowering love shall
spring;
The rising of the morn
At midnight shall apeear,
Whenever Christ is born
In the ending of the year.
Eleanor
Farjeon
Welsh New Year Carol
Now the joyful bells a-ringing,
All ye mountains praise the Lord!
Lift our hearts, like birds a-winging,
All ye mountains praise the Lord!
Now our festal season, bringing
Kinsmen all to bide and board.
Sets our cheery voices singing:
All ye mountains praise the Lord!
Dear our home as dear none other,
Where the mountains praise the Lord.
Gladly here our care we smother,
Where the mountains praise the Lord
Here we know that Christ our brother
Binds us all as by a cord:
He was born of Mary mother,
Where the mountains praise the Lord.
Cold the year, new whiteness wearing,
All ye mountains, praise the Lord!
Peace, goodwill to us a-bearing,
All ye mountains, praise the Lord!
Now we all God‘s goodness sharing
Break the bread and sheathe the sword:
Bright our hearths the signal flaring,
All ye mountains, praise the Lord!
At
the
Gate of the Year
One of the best-known yet least-known
poems was published 100 years ago. It is the poem quoted by King George
VI in his Christmas Day broadcast in 1939. It came at the end of the
nine-minute broadcast:
‘I feel that we may all find a message
of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I would like
to say to you:
I said to the man who stood at
the Gate of the Year,
“Give me a light that I may
tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied,
“Go out into the darkness, and
put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better
than light, and safer than a known way.”
May that Almighty Hand guide and
uphold us all.’
The King’s broadcast was specifically
Christian in content. He identified Christmas as “above all, the
festival of peace”. But Britain was of course at war (and, it is worth
noting the obvious fact, obscured by hindsight, that at the time no one
knew if Britain would win the war). “I believe from my heart,” George
VI said, “that the cause which binds together my peoples and our
gallant and faithful Allies is the cause of Christian civilisation.”
The mysterious-sounding words with
which he finished the broadcast were by Minnie Haskins (1875-1957).
They came from a poem of hers called “God Knows”, in a collection, The
Desert, published in 1908. Neither the poem nor its author was well
known. Indeed, Miss Haskins did not realise the King was going to quote
her words. She didn’t hear the broadcast. “I heard the quotation read
in a summary of the speech,” she told The Daily Telegraph the following
day. “I thought the words sounded familiar and suddenly it dawned on me
that they were out of my little book.”
The poem had been drawn to the King’s
attention by Queen Elizabeth, the present Queen’s mother, and the lines
were to be recited 63 years later at her own funeral. They were wisely
chosen to stand on their own, for the remainder do not possess such a
compelling quality.
Immediately after the lines that
George VI quoted, the verse form changes:
“So I went forth, And finding the hand
of God, Trod gladly into the night. He led me towards the hills And the
breaking of day in the lone east. So heart be still! What need our
human life to know If God hath comprehension? In all the dizzy strife
of things, Both high and low, God hideth his intention.’
An error that has got abroad is that
Minnie Haskins was an American. She was a grocer’s daughter brought up
at Warmley, Bristol. As a Congregationalist, she taught at a
Sunday school there. It is said that the image in her poem came to her
at Warmley when she was standing at an upstairs balcony window, looking
down the lit driveway to the gate.
Pamela Emy, a former pupil of Minnie
Haskins at the London School of Economics, wrote to The Daily Telegraph
in 2002: “My abiding memory is of her asking me in a tutorial, ‘And how
is your personal philosophy getting along, Miss Emy?’ As a naive
20-year-old, I remember being somewhat floored.”
Christopher Howse
'Sacred Mysteries' column, The Daily
Telegraph, August 2008
Intercessions
to
begin a new year
A new year is unfolding—like a blossom
with petals curled tightly
concealing the beauty within.
Lord, let this year be filled with the
things that are truly good—
with the comfort of warmth in our
relationships,
with the strength to help those who
need our help
and the humility and openness to
accept help from others.
As we make our resolutions for the
year ahead,
et us go forward with great hope that
all things can be possible—
with Your help and guidance.
Unlooked
for, Christ comes.
To shepherds,
watching their sheep through the long,
dark night,
he comes with the glory of the angels'
song
and in the humility of the manger.
Loving God, we pray for our
community...
In the midst of our everyday lives,
surprise us with glimpses of your
glorious, humble love,
at the heart of existence.
Searched
for,
Christ comes.
To the wise and powerful,
star-led to Bethlehem, seeking a king,
he comes, child of Mary,
crowned with meekness,
worthy of every gift.
Loving God, we pray for the leaders of
the world...
Guide them with your light
to seek wisdom, justice and peace.
Longed for, Christ comes.
To Anna and Simeon,
whose days were lived in faithful
expectation,
he came, a new life to the old,
a living prophecy of hope.
To men and women, girls and boys,
crying out in darkness, pain and
loneliness,
he comes, at one with us,
our Saviour, Healer and Friend.
Loving God, we pray for those
whose lives are hard and painful
or whose existence is sorrowful,
bitter or empty...
In their need, may they know your
healing touch,
reaching out to comfort, strengthen
and restore.
Unlooked for and not searched for,
longed for and prayed for,
loving God, you come to us now
as you have come to your people in
every age.
We thank you for all who have reflected
the light of Christ through the ages,
especially the ever-blessed Virgin
Mary,
and St Joseph. Help us to follow their
example
and bring us with them to eternal life.
Lord in your
mercy
Hear our
prayer.
O Christ
the Same
O Christ the same through all
our story’s pages.
Our loves and hopes, our failures and
our fears;
Eternal Lord, the King of all the ages,
Unchanging still, amid the passing
years:
O living Word, the source of all
creation,
Who spread the skies, and set the
stars ablaze,
O Christ the same, who wrought our
whole salvation,
We bring our thanks for all our
yesterdays.
O Christ the same, the Son of Mary,
sharing
Our inmost thoughts, the secrets none
can hide,
Still as of old upon your body bearing
The marks of love, in triumph
glorified:
O Son of Man, who stooped to us from
heaven,
O Prince of life, in all your saving
power,
O Christ the same, to whom our hearts
are given,
We bring our thanks for this the
present hour.
O Christ the same, secure within whose
keeping
Our lives and loves, our days and
years remain,
Our work and rest, our waking and our
sleeping,
Our calm and storm, our pleasure and
our pain:
O Lord of love, for all our joys and
sorrows,
For all our hopes, when earth shall
fade and flee’
O Christ the same,for all our brief
tomorrows,
We bring our thanks for all that is to
be.
Eternal Lord God, we give you
thanks for bringing us through the
changes of time
to the beginning of another
year.
Forgive us the wrong we have
done in the year that is past,
and help us to spend the rest
of our days to your honour and glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The clergy
and
people of Saint Faith's wish all church members,
friends and visitors to this site a very happy and blessed New Year.
Go
to the Christmas pages
Return to our home page