Let us pray first
for steadiness -
not triumph, not ease,
but the ability to stay
when the ground feels thin.
For mornings that do not ask us
to be heroic,
only awake.
For the grace to read the news
without hardening,
to feel the weight of the world
without dropping it on one another.
Let us pray for language
that does not bruise -
for sentences that open
instead of close,
for listening that lasts longer
than our certainty.
For the courage to be wrong
and the humility to change
without calling it defeat.
Let us pray for work -
honest work,
whether paid or unseen -
and for rest that is not earned
but allowed.
For bodies:
that they be spared when possible,
endured when not,
and treated with mercy always.
For homes that hold,
and for those without them,
may we not avert our eyes
or excuse our comfort
as inevitability.
Let us pray for children:
that they be protected
from the sharpest edges of our failures,
and for parents:
that love not be mistaken for control.
For the tired,
the grieving,
the quietly afraid,
may the year offer
at least one moment
that feels like a hand on the back.
Let us pray for patience
with time itself -
for the long view,
for seeds planted without proof,
for faith that looks like showing up again.
And when we ask for hope,
let it not arrive as illusion
or applause,
but as the simple resolve
to keep choosing one another
in small, unphotographed ways.
This year,
may we learn to want less spectacle
and more repair,
less argument
and more accuracy of care.
May we be given
not everything we desire,
but enough clarity
to know what matters,
and enough kindness
to act on it.
Amen -
which here means:
let it begin with us.
GBS jr
2026
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