New Year Prayers to start the year off right

From Sr. Margaret Proskovec, ND

This prayer was taught to my First Communion Class many years ago and remains a favorite, especially in these days of “distancing.”

Dear Jesus, I desire to receive you.
Come to me, I pray, and fill my being with holiness and grace.
Enable me to love you and to serve you all the days of my life. Amen.

Another prayer that helps ground my spirit is based on a reflection on the Lord’s Prayer by Walter Russell Bowie. I have prayed it often since finding it in a book my sister gave me for my first profession of vows. I have adapted the wording slightly.

Gracious and empowering God,
Help me to believe today
That your power to lift me up
Is stronger than all the things that hold me down.

[Additional verses are:]

Help me to be sensitive to what is beautiful,
Responsive to what is good,
And open to what is true
So that, day by day, I may grow more sure of the value in life
That is worthy of trust.
May I be quick to see, ready to encourage, and able to create
That which brings meaning into what would otherwise be
The common round of an uninspired day. Amen.