Ring in the New Year!

As we ring in the New Year of 2012, I thought this lovely poem which floated quietly in my e-mail inbox, courtesy of Poets.org, just after we popped champagne following a long and brutal game of Scrabble: Booklovers Edition (thank you, Godmommy Vera!), was perfect for expressing the New Year's cliche of "out with the old, in with the new." After all, Tennyson wasn't one for cliches, thank goodness!

So as we return soon from the rush and exhaustion and joy and pain that make up the Holy Days, I thought we could especially pray the final stanza which will be posted in the sidebar as the Quotation of the Week:

From In Memoriam by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

So as we ring out all that was evil, injurious, sad, wrong, unjust, grievous, and sinful in 2011, may we welcome all that is brave, true, right, courageous, beautiful, holy, lovely, sacred, and godly in 2012!!

From the Book of Common Prayer 2011, page 61:

For Guidance
O GOD, by you the humble are guided in doing right; Your light illumines the darkness for those who trust in you; In our doubts and uncertainties, give us grace to ask what you would have us do, so that the Spirit of Wisdom may save us from all false choices; In your light may we see light, and in your straight path may we not stumble; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Sources: Psalm 26.9; 36.9; John 1.5; Jeremiah 17.7)

May God grant us all a healthy and blessed New Year of 2012 as we strive to follow the example of Christ our Lord as we live, serve, and love in His ways.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! And a Happy Ninth Day of Christmastide as well!!

Praying to follow the Light, this year and always,