For a New Beginning

 

For a New Beginning by John O’Donohue

 

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered, would you always live like this?

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.



A Prayer

"See, I am doing a new thing!" Isaiah 43: 19

 

Prayer

Jesus - Help me to stop remembering and dwelling on the past in ways that are unhelpful. I choose to not live in the past or to live in regret. I choose to leave the past in the past, and refocus on the new work God will do today

I choose to make room for God to do a new thing.

I open myself to the grace of a new year and a new beginning, acknowledging that you are the God of the fresh start, that your loyal love will never run out, that your merciful love will never dry up but that they are created new every morning and you are the God of great faithfulness.

I choose to make room for God to do a new thing.

God I seek you and open to you the deepest desires of my heart. I choose to be honest with myself and you and I let go of who I think I ought to be, who everyone else wants me to be, who other people think I am and I choose to be who you say I am.

I choose to make room for God to do a new thing.

Sometimes I don’t perceive the new thing. It is hidden in the profound mystery which veils creation. Give me eyes to see it spring to light, to come out of the darkness.

I choose to make room for God to do a new thing

It appears when and where it chooses. I cannot force it, and I cannot calculate it. Readiness is the only condition for it. So make me ready and able to see what former things in my life have become old. Help the new to break the power of the old, not only in reality, but also in my memory.

I choose to make room for God to do a new thing

Help me to see that the new bears the mark of its eternal origin in its face, the origin of the new thing is you God, you have said “I” am doing a new thing.

I choose to make room for God to do a new thing