As we welcome the start of a New Year, we may enter it feeling hopeful and expectant, we may feel trepidation, we may come with hearts full of desires and dreams for what will unfold during it. We may step over this threshold weary from the what 2019 brought us and with the call in our hearts just to keep putting one step in front of the other. However we come, Jesus is there to meet us and walk with us. Holy Spirit is there to enfold us and be present to us with her generous and unfailing love.

However we come into this new year perhaps we would all welcome the grace to be present to our lives whatever they offer, to live less on auto-pilot and more in the here and now of the day and the moment we find ourselves in. Busy, demanding lives seem intent on stealing this here and now place, they pull us backwards or forwards and we miss what is present. The present moment is so often rich in beauty and joy but it passes us by in a blur of to-do lists and limited time.

As we welcome this start of 2020 I offer you this simple Welcoming Prayer. It helps me stay present to what really matters, to let go of what doesn’t and to be more tuned into my heart. It helps me surrender my false-self “programmes for happiness” which have me reaching beyond the here and now, which press the strive and survive buttons and which lead to less of what I truly desire.

I’ve been praying this prayer regularly during this last year and it has very slowly been changing me. It invites me to be present to my life even when I’m not keen on what that life is offering, it invites me to surrender and trust. It helps me welcome all that the day brings, to lean into its fullness and be changed by it. You may already know it, but if you don’t it may be of help to you too.