This year, as I studied a section of the Stewarding Strength study, I was reminded of the gift of being able to rest and reorient my mind, heart, and emotions toward God. With the fast pace of life, it’s easy for me to forget the importance of creating rhythms of rest, renewal, and reflection.

This Reflection Guide invites us to pause and prayerfully remember this past year. It also invites us to look ahead to this coming year. We invite you to take some time during the holidays (or when things get back into a routine) and use this guide to journal and pray, to pause and remember, to surrender this coming year to our Lord and invite him in every area of your life in 2025.

O Christ our Sabbath,

You have fashioned us to function best

in rhyming lines of work and rest;

our relaxations and recreations

like unspoken invitations

to that still greater holiday to come—

when all burdens will at last be shed

and weariness be put to bed,

and gladsome joy stretch endlessly before us.

(Excerpt from “A Liturgy for Leaving on Holiday,” from Every Moment Holy, Vol. 1)

Nathalie Richard

for the Women at Grace Newsletter Team