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Good morning. It is still early in the year and while I’m not one for New Year Resolutions I am thinking about the year ahead and praying for grace. It will be a significant year for me – one of those O birthdays. Hence the prayer for grace – the grace to accept this time and grasp its opportunities.

I want to be grateful for the opportunity of another year, another birthday. Not everyone has that privilege. On this day in 1935 in Tupelo Mississippi, Elvis Presley was born along with his stillborn twin, Jesse.. Elvis was one of the heroes of my teenage years - Jailhouse Rock, Hound dog, Blue Suede Shoes – what a talent!

I remember where I was when I heard of his death in 1977 at only 42 years of age. I considered it a huge loss Elvis did not have the privilege of the new stage of life that I hope to enter this year.

So I am praying for the grace to not only accept the passing of the years but to make something of them. I am praying with the Anonymous Abbess that God will help me to be ‘reasonably gentle.’ I am also praying for courage and boldness, hanging on to the American feminist Gloria Steinem’s belief that women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.

Lord God, we pray for the grace to receive this year as a welcome gift and the wisdom to choose who we become. May our spirits be our beauty and our mark on the world worth making. Amen.