Prayer Offered for January 8, 2026

As we continue to ease into the work of this new year, Brendan Kennelly invites us to begin again:

Begin again to the summoning of the birds

to the sight of the light at the window,

begin to the roar of morning traffic

all along N Street.

Every beginning is a promise

born in light and dying in dark

determination and exaltation of springtime

flowering the way to work.

Begin to the pageant of queuing constituents

the arrogant loneliness of crowds downtown

bridges linking the past and the future

old friends passing through with us still….

Though we live in a world that dreams of ending

that always seems about to give in

something that will not acknowledge conclusion

insists that we forever begin.

_{(The Essential Brendan Kennelly)}