On New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, the household gathers at the table, at the Christmas tree or manger scene.

All make the sign of the cross. The leader begins:

Let us praise the Lord of days and seasons and years, saying:
Glory to God in the highest!
R/. And peace to his people on earth!
The leader may use these or similar words to introduce the blessing:
Our lives are made of days and nights, of seasons and years,
for we are part of a universe of suns and moons and planets.
We mark ends and we make beginnings and, in all, we
praise God for the grace and mercy that fill our days.

After a time of silence, members of the household offer prayers of thanksgiving for the past year, and of intercession for the year to come. Then parents may place their hands on their children in blessing as the leader says:

Remember us, O God;
from age to age be our comforter.
 You have given us the wonder of time,
 blessings in days and nights, seasons and years.
 Bless your children at the turning of the year
and fill the months ahead with the bright hope
that is ours in the coming of Christ.
You are our God, living and reigning, forever and ever.
R/. Amen.

This prayer for peace follows:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
R/. Amen.
—Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

The leader says:

Let us bless the Lord.
All respond, making the sign of the cross:
Thanks be to God.

The prayer may conclude with the singing of a Christmas carol.

(For the Feast of the Holy Family, 2023)