In a prayer for New Year's Day, the God who brings us safely through the changes of time is described as without any variableness or shadow of turning. He is the God in whom believers find confidence. Forty years ago David, a 90-year-old priest, was talking about his prayer life over the years, and he quoted words from Cardinal Newman's famous hymn, Lead, kindly Light. Words in it had become a telling influence in his daily confidence and living: "So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on."
The hymn is just right for use by believers at the start of the New Year. The stress is upon what God does with us through His means of grace in prayer and sacrament that we "may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal.":
Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead thou me on.
Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see
The distant scene, one step enough for me.
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since and lost awhile.
We pray to be able to recognise God's lead and be made able to obey it as we begin a new year with the intent of pleasing Him. The angel revealed God's purpose for Mary, and she obeyed. St Joseph also obeyed when he knew what God wished him to do. The shepherds, once they knew, hastened to the Bethlehem manger. The wise men, once they were sure of the guiding star, followed it until it stood over where the young child was.
David, the elderly priest, found comfort, peace, and purpose, in the words: "So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on." Such a happy faith, a sense of purpose for each day, is a boon for which we ask God at this time in facing the future. The psalmist expresses a similar confidence when he says of a believer: "He will not be afraid of any evil tidings: for his heart standeth fast, and believeth in the Lord" (Psalm 112, verse 7). It is interesting that such an expression of simple faith by an elderly man, some 40 years ago, should remain in mind.
At the beginning of 1998 we wish one another a Happy New Year, that we find our peace in doing God's will - our contribution to any peace process. It is summed in a little prayer to God: "Forgive the past, renew the present, and make good the future."
Thus provided, pardoned, guided,
Nothing can our peace destroy.
W.W.