A Prayer for the Beginning of a New Year

Everliving God, by whose mercy we have come to the gateway of another year: Grant that we may enter it with humble and grateful hearts; and confirm our resolution, we beseech thee, to walk more closely in thy way, and labor more faithfully in thy service, according to the teaching and example of thy Son our Lord. Let not the errors and offenses of the past cling to us, but pardon and set us free, that with purer purpose and a better hope we may renew our vows in thy presence, and set forth under the guidance of thy Spirit, to travel in the path which shineth more and more unto the perfect day of thy heavenly kingdom. Amen.

from The Methodist Book of Worship for Church and Home, 1965

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