God of our hopes and our dreams,
you have planted the hunger for glad tidings within us.
Make your joy more complete
as we participate in proclaiming this Good News;
the blind will see
the prisoner will be released.
Give us the courage
to reach out to the incarcerated
and bring into reality
this promise of freedom.
Help us to diffuse our fears
and know how to realize our call
so that a year of favor
may be celebrated in your name.
I pray this,
holding my reservations and anxiety up to you,
and I ask for your blessing and grace,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord
and through your Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Adapted from The People's Prayer Book, © RENEW International.