let it be

Dec 31, 2021

.

It’s New Year’s Eve.

2021 is coming to an end.

Let it be.

There is a beautiful prayer included in the New Zealand Prayer Book widely used in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa. Among the many beautiful prayers is one of my favourite night-time prayers. It begins: Lord, It is night. The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God.

On his popular Liturgy website Bosco Peters share this gentle and powerful providing something of its background. You might check it out at this link.

But for now, and for this final day of 2021, I want to use this prayer in adapted form as a New Year’s Eve offering.

Let us pray together, for ourselves, for those we love and for our world:

Lord, it is New Year’s Eve
a day for stillness
Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is the eve of a new year,
after a very long and challenging year.
What has been done has been done;
What has not been done has not been done;
Let it be.

Let our fears of the darkness of the world
and of our own lives
rest in you.

This day is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace
enfold us,
all dear to us,
and all who have no peace.

This eve of a new year heralds the dawn.
Let us look expectantly to a new year,
new joys
new possibilities.

In your name we pray
Amen

You might like to join me in praying this prayer several times throughout this New Year’s Eve day, that we may have the wisdom to give to Jesus the things that have been done and the things that have not been done, the things that have been done well and the things that have been done badly through this year now ending.

Jesus, help us to LET IT BE.

I have a friend, John in Perth, who often on the Homily Studio directs our conversation to the psalm of the Mass as a key to the scriptures of the day. I’m pretty sure that today John would highlight Psalm 95 – with my obvious additions:

O let me sing a new song to the Lord in 2022,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
O sing to the Lord, bless his name.
Make me ready to
Proclaim Jesus’ help day by day
throughout a new Year of the Lord – 2022

9 Comments

  1. Lynn on December 31, 2021 at 5:53 am

    Thank you Father John for your reflections and sharing through 2021. May Jesus continue to bless you as you give of yourself through your work. What a lovely prayer “Let it be”

    Reply
  2. Phil cody on December 31, 2021 at 6:27 am

    We give thanks

    Reply
  3. Jane on December 31, 2021 at 8:27 am

    Beautiful

    Reply
  4. Tony on December 31, 2021 at 9:11 am

    Thanks John for your guidance through a challenging year. I pray the Let it be every night before bed.

    Reply
  5. Catherine Perry on December 31, 2021 at 9:49 am

    Ditto what Fr Phil said. FFF has been of enormous help during Lockdown in Auckland.

    Let it be indeed. And because some of us are of such an age, I can’t help wondering if you might have been watching the Let it Be doco, as I have, during the holiday season? With sincere thanks to God for those four boys and their music.

    Reply
  6. ANN on December 31, 2021 at 12:16 pm

    I too say the Let It Be Prayer every night before sleep, very calming. Thank you also for fff and opening my eyes to ideas other than mine. Bless you and all you do Father John.

    Reply
  7. Terence on December 31, 2021 at 1:28 pm

    Thank you, Father John I look forward to more.
    A happy and Holy new year to you all.

    Reply
  8. John on January 1, 2022 at 2:04 am

    Thank you John. Let it be, in the friendship of Jesus,
    John (Perth)

    Reply
  9. John on January 1, 2022 at 2:52 am

    Thank you John. Let it be, and let us sing a new song to the Lord.
    In the friendship of Jesus
    John (Perth)

    Reply

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