This prayer was one of the last things written in prison by the German theologian & pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, just months before he was executed. He sent the prayer to his fiancée, Marie, as an encouragement and profession of faith to be shared with his family. To this day the prayer is regularly prayed and or sung in German churches on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Like so much of Bonhoeffer’s writing, this prayer takes seriously the sorrows of life. But it also confesses hope in the promise of God’s graciousness, God’s provision, no matter how dark the horizon may seem. For this reason, we too may find this prayer to be a powerful New Year’s prayer for us as well.
For more on Bonhoeffer’s life and ministry, see Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography; Charles Marsh, Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.
With gracious powers for good to uphold and guide us,
comforted and inspired beyond all fear,
we live our days with God behind and beside us,
and pass, with You, Lord, into the coming year.
This New Year’s Day, as candles shed their radiant greeting
on all our darkness, are they not Your light,
leading us to You, our longed-for meeting?
You can illumine even our darkest night.
Even should the old year still unsettle and, unhastening,
the days of sorrow still endure,
Father, grant to the hearts You have been chastening
what You have promised—the healing and the cure.
Should it be ours, this year, to drink the cup of grief
even to the dregs of pain, at Your command
we wish not to falter but, confidently receive
all that is given as held within Your loving hand.
And should it be Your will to release us
to life’s enjoyments and its sweet light,
may what we’ve learned from sorrow not diminish but increase us
and all our life be lived as under Your loving sight.
With gracious powers for good to uphold and guide us,
with confidence we’ll face tomorrow, be what it may.
At evening and at morning You, Lord, will be beside us,
and oh, most surely also on this new year’s day!
In the original German:
Von guten Mächten treu und still umgeben,
behütet und getröstet wunderbar,
so will ich diese Tage mit euch leben
und mit euch gehen in ein neues Jahr.
Noch will das alte unsre Herzen quälen,
noch drückt uns böser Tage schwere Last.
Ach Herr, gib unsern aufgeschreckten Seelen
das Heil, für das du uns geschaffen hast.
Und reichst du uns den schweren Kelch, den bittern
des Leids, gefüllt bis an den höchsten Rand,
so nehmen wir ihn dankbar ohne Zittern
aus deiner guten und geliebten Hand.
Doch willst du uns noch einmal Freude schenken
an dieser Welt und ihrer Sonne Glanz,
dann wolln wir des Vergangenen gedenken,
und dann gehört dir unser Leben ganz.
Laß warm und hell die Kerzen heute flammen,
die du in unsre Dunkelheit gebracht,
führ, wenn es sein kann, wieder uns zusammen.
Wir wissen es, dein Licht scheint in der Nacht.
Wenn sich die Stille nun tief um uns breitet,
so laß uns hören jenen vollen Klang
der Welt, die unsichtbar sich um uns weitet,
all deiner Kinder hohen Lobgesang.
Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen
erwarten wir getrost, was kommen mag.
Gott ist bei uns am Abend und am Morgen
und ganz gewiß an jedem neuen Tag.