Vocation of the Apostles (1481) by Domenico Ghirlandaio.
FEATHER: Almighty Creator, we the children of your creation lift up our thanksgiving for all that you are and all that you reveal in this our journey of life and faith. You have created the seasons that we might grasp a small glimpse of your power and wonder. You have blessed us with this season of winter-tide so that we may slow down and gather around the warming fires of home and family, to tell stories of the past and the sharing of your gift to all the world through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who brought hope, peace, joy and love to all, in the gift of coming to be one with us all through the seasons since. Creator, walk with us now through this new year of 2024 that we might offer these gifts back to you and to those who journey with us. Help us to be hope in a world that struggles day to day, to be peace in a conflicted world, to embrace joy in serving others and finally to love and honour the world and others around us as you have loved and blessed us. Bless this new year as we walk forward in faith, bless our homes and ministries, bless our communities and especially those in need and struggling, and open our hearts and lives to greater thanksgiving to see and live in your grace. Bless us to be a blessing to others. To him who is the new light and life, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
SAGE: As we together begin a new year, we go forward as a family in Christ, and the world around us watches with wonder because it struggles to understand faith, to understand that through it we strive to be better than we were yesterday; that we human beings, though fraught with conflict, might seek to open ourselves up to new truths about ourselves and go forward as living hope in the new life in Christ. We should present only the best of what God has called us to be: a people of prayer and reading and living out the gospel message—or as many might say, a living sermon for all to live into, revealing Christ in all we say and do. If we all could do this, from the least to the greatest of us, maybe this coming year of 2024 will be truly all we would wish and desire it to be as one in the family of God our Creator. Blessings to all in 2024.