For the Last Day of the Year

The end of the year should naturally make you think of the end of your life. This reflection should in­duce you to place yourself in the state in which you would like to be found at the hour of your death. We ought, said a great saint, to ask of God, through Jesus Christ, the grace to repair all the spiritual losses we have sustaineed through our negligence. We should beseech Him, in the name and through the merits of this divine Saviour, to enable us to attain that degree of perfection to which He wished to conduct us, if we had corresponded with fidelity. This practice suits particularly the end of the year.

In thanksgiving to almighty God, for the spiritual and temporal blessings bestowed on you, on your parents, children, friends, neighbors, on all mankind, during this past year, recite with lively sentiments of gratitude the Te Deum or Magnificat.

And in expiation of your infidelities, recite the Miserere (Psalm 51, The Miserere: Prayer of Repentance):

Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness,
in your abundant compassion
blot out my offense.
Wash away all my guilt;
from my sin cleanse me.

For I know my offense;
my sin is always before me.
Against you alone have I sinned;
I have done such evil in your sight
That you are just in your sentence,
blameless when you condemn.
True, I was born guilty, a sinner,
even as my mother conceived me.
Still, you insist on sincerity of heart;
in my inmost being teach me wisdom.

Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure;
wash me, make me whiter than snow.
Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Turn away your face from my sins;
blot out all my guilt.

A clean heart create for me, God;
renew in me a steadfast spirit.
Do not drive me from your presence,
nor take from me your holy spirit.
Restore my joy in your salvation;
sustain in me a willing spirit.

I will teach the wicked your ways,
that sinners may return to you.
Rescue me from death, God, my saving God,
that my tongue may praise your healing power.
Lord, open my lips;
my mouth will proclaim your praise.
For you do not desire sacrifice;
a burnt offering you would not accept.
My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit;
God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart.

An Offering of the New Year

O my God! another year is added to the number of those for which I am accountable to Thee.

Well may I recount them all in the bitterness of my soul, for they have been filled with infidelities and ingratitude.

Thou hast granted them to me to know, to love, and serve Thee, and every one if them brings to my recollection numberless omissions of these essential duties.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me, for I have no hope but in Thy mercy.

It now offers me this new year to repair the evils and retrieve the losses of those which are past.

Grant, O Lord, that it be entirely consecrated to Thy glory, sanctified by Thy love, and wholly employed in Thy service. Amen.
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Adapted from Prayer Book for Religious
by Fr. F. X. Lasance (© 1904)