Welcome to 2024, with all its hopes and uncertainties!  My hope is that you may look back upon 2023, releasing what was challenging and draining for you and keeping what brought you new learnings and joy. Every beginning is the end of another beginning, and so this ground can be familiar to us. Let that wisdom be the ground beneath your feet as you face 2024 in hope.  God the Ground of our Being is with us in every new beginning.  

I offer you the gift of this Celtic blessing that was given to me by our friend Pastor DanaLee in the busy days of Advent.  May it return you in the days ahead to the Loving Ground that is under our feet always.  Pastor David

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
of water flowing, rising and falling,
sometimes advancing, sometimes receding …
May the stream of your life flow unimpeded!
Deep peace of the running wave to you! 

Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
which fans your face on a sultry day,
the air which you breathe deeply, rhythmically,
which imparts to you energy, consciousness, life.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you! 

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
who, herself unmoving, harbours the movements
and facilitates the life of the ten thousand creatures,
while resting contented, stable, tranquil.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you! 

Deep peace of the shining stars to you,

which stay invisible till darkness falls
and discloses their pure and shining presence
beaming down in compassion on our turning world.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you! 

Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you,
of unpretentious folk who, watching and waiting,
spend long hours out on the hillside,
expecting in simplicity some Coming of the Lord.
Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you! 

Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you,
who, swift as the wave and pervasive as the air,
quiet as the earth and shining like a star,
breathes into us His Peace and His Spirit.
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you! 

~Mary Rogers, Adapted from The Gaelic