THANKSGIVING FOR ANOTHER YEAR

Our Father who art in heaven, Lord of Truth, of time, and of eternity: Yours is today and tomorrow, the past and the future. As the year 2025 comes to a close, on behalf of myself and my family, we want to thank you for all that we have received from you.

Thank you for the family you gave us, for life and love, air and sun, for joy and sorrow, for all that was possible and for what could not be.

Thank you for welcoming us into your true Church. We offer you all that we have done this past year: the work we were able to accomplish, the things that passed through our hands, and the positive things we were able to build with them.

Also, Lord, today we want to ask for your forgiveness.

Forgiveness for our sins, for the harm we have caused, for the time wasted, for the money squandered, for our omissions, for our useless words, and for the love wasted.

Forgive us for empty deeds and for work poorly done. And forgive us for living without enthusiasm. Forgive us also for the prayer that, little by little, we postponed and that we only now offer to thank you for all that you have given us.

For all our forgetfulness, negligence, and silences. Again, we ask your forgiveness, Lord.

We begin a new year and pause our lives before the new, unused calendar. We present to you these future 365 days, which only you know who will live to the end. If we do not finish them... help us to die in you, in sanctifying grace, after having gone—sincerely contrite—to the tribunal of Confession.

Today we ask for each of us: peace and joy, strength and prudence, charity and wisdom, the commitment to be faithful to you and always live in your grace, for only in grace is the path safe.  Only a fool fails to understand this, so we ask you to remove any blindfold that prevents us from seeing our folly.

Lord, help us to be zealous for your glory and that of your Church, and to live only for you, in you, and through you.

We want to live each day with optimism and kindness, carrying everywhere a heart full of understanding and peace that always seeks the Truth of your Word. May nothing separate us from it, for your faith is our greatest treasure.

Close our ears to all slander, to false doctrines against your Word. And our lips to lying, selfish, biting, or hurtful words. Open, instead, our being to all that is good.

May our spirit be filled only with blessings, and may we pour them out wherever we go. Fill us with goodness and joy, so that all who live with us, or those who come near us, may find in our lives a little of you.

Thank you, Lord, for everything, and forgive our debts to you. Guide us all along the narrow path that will one day allow us to enter through the narrow gate and be in your eternal embrace to bless you forever and ever. If for this it is necessary that you use your right hand to shake us, we accept beforehand any sorrow and pain, however difficult they may be.

Grant us a happy 2026 and teach us to love you by always living in your grace and following you with complete fidelity. Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of the past year, as well as for those you will bestow in the coming year.

Most Holy Virgin Mary, I entrust my entire family to your Immaculate Heart.

Amen.

REFLECTION:

Perhaps you spent part of this year in mortal sin. If you had died during that time, where would you be now? God has given you time to do penance; make better use of it in the future—perhaps you have only this year of life!  Prepare yourself, then, to die; make a good confession, and if you wish to live holy lives throughout the coming year, reflect daily on death and eternity. God has hidden your last day from you so that you may prepare for it every day of your life.