A new year can offer hope and enthusiasm for starting anew, or it can bring fear and despair stirred by our human weaknesses and failures. Ask God to help us achieve our new endeavors and resolutions and reground ourselves in God’s grace, forgiveness and newness when we fall short of our expectations and goals. Ask the Spirit to help us encourage, assist and surround with grace people who stumble or whose confidence is unsteady.

                        Prayer Ventures, Living Lutheran

Canticle of the Turning                                                                                  ELW #723

1    My soul cries out with a joyful shout

      that the God of my heart is great,

      and my spirit sings of the wondrous things

      that you bring to the ones who wait.

      You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight,

      and my weakness you did not spurn,

      so from east to west shall my name be blest.

      Could the world be about to turn?

Refrain

      My heart shall sing of the day you bring.

      Let the fires of your justice burn.

      Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,

      and the world is about to turn.

Text: Rory Cooney, b. 1952, based on the Magnificat Text © 1990 GIA Publications, Inc., 7404 S. Mason Ave., Chicago, IL 60638. www.giamusic.com. 800.442.3358. All rights reserved. Used by permission.