KYRIE

God of history and of our hearts,
So much has happened to us during this past year:
We've known death and birth; we've been brave and scared;
we've hurt, we've helped; we've been honest; we've lied;
we've destroyed; we've created; we've been with people, we've been lonely;
we've been loyal, we've betrayed; we've decided; we've waffled;
we've laughed and we've cried.
You know our frail hearts and our frayed history -- and now another year begins.

KYRIE

O God, help us to believe in beginnings
And in our beginning again, no matter how often we've failed before/
Help us make beginnings:
To begin forgiving that we may experience mercy;
To begin questioning the unquestionable that we may know truth;
To begin disciplining that we may create beauty;
To begin sacrificing that we may accomplish justice;
To begin risking that we may make peace;
To begin loving that we may realize joy.

KYRIE

Help us to be a beginning for others,
To be a singer to the songless, a storyteller to the aimless,
A befriender of the friendless;
TO become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed,
of comfort for the sorrowing, of friendship for the forgotten;
To become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn,
of sweetness for the soured, of gentleness for the angry,
of wholeness for the broken, of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.

KYRIE

Help us to believe in beginnings, to make a beginning, to be a beginning, so that we may not just grow old, but grow new each day of this wild, amazing life you call us to live with the passion of Jesus Christ.

KYRIE