The 7th Day of Christmas. A Blessing at the turn of the year

May you walk into this night "by gracious powers wonderfully sheltered" as Bonhoeffer has it in his hymn sung from the rubble.

Surrounded by such true and gentle powers.
So wondrously consoled and without fear,
Thus will I spend with you these final hours
And then together enter a new year.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dear fellow pilgrim,

With this image of the moon gazing over our Moravian star at yesterday’s dawn we greet you one last time this year from our home in Minnesota. Today we woke up to a soft blanket of snow and a sky heavy with more white to come (so no moon this last dawn of the year).

Today I offer you a blessing which has become for us a tradition here at our 12 Days of Christmas Contemplations. It borrows from the tradition of the “watch night” service I grew up with. These services have probably been started by the Moravians in Germany around 1732 as a service at the end of the year. Ever since I can remember, the consoling words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer have eased for me these hours where the old and the new year meet.

Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen (translated as “By gracious powers wonderfully sheltered” or “By gentle powers lovingly surrounded”) is a much-loved hymn that is widely sung in German speaking lands at the turn of the year and it has guided us into the New Year also here at the 12 Days Contemplations since its humble beginnings seven years ago.

The protestant theologian, church leader, and resistance member Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these inspiring and melancholic words as a prayer toward the end of his 2-year imprisonment by the Nazis.  He sent it to his family as an encouragement and profession of faith in December of 1944, just eight weeks before he was executed (and four months before Nazi Germany’s capitulation) at a time when much of Germany had been turned to rubble by the allied powers.  Bonhoeffer’s life, witness, and death gives the song special resonance at the turn of the year.

In another year filled with worry and war, where people are burdened and frightened by their personal and political situation, in a year we leave behind with grief and gratitude, I cannot think of a more comforting text. A text that allows us to walk into the night cradling hope.

“The worries of the old year still torment us.
We’re troubled still by long and wicked days.
Oh Lord, give our frightened souls the healing
For which You’ve chastened us in many ways.”

— D. Bonhoeffer

B ack in my little village in East Germany, behind the Iron curtain, when church attendance was sparse and life for any believer was one of constant repression, it was the courage of the philosopher-theologian Bonhoeffer and this song which gave me hope. His New Year song was always part of our end of year church service, when the little flock met in our house church on New Year’s Eve to receive the last blessing of the old year.

At midnight my family went outside to ring the big bells in the bell tower on the cemetery, where the church once sat before the Second World war destroyed it. We older siblings took turns pulling the ropes of the two heavy bells, to ring the village from the old into the new year. The villagers always waited until the bells turned silent to begin their fireworks - the official way Germans welcome the New Year.

So at the end of this year, whether you find yourself lonely or loved, harried or hopeful, anxious or assured, we want to send you forth into the night and into the unfolding of the New Year with the lyrics and tune of Bonhoeffer's hymn. Do listen. Do hum or sing. Do pray along. Do come back to it at midnight. And again.

May this song comfort you at this threshold Eve and may God's gentle powers embrace you and enter with you into this New Year.

With love, Almut with Chuck

Here is an English version of the German song performed by Sigfried Fietz, a German musician and song writer, who wrote the musical version of Bonhoeffer’s prayer in 1977. It comes with the English text to meditate on while listening.

Below is a German version with Sigfried Fietz at the piano:

“

Surrounded by such true and gentle powers.
So wondrously consoled and without fear,
Thus will I spend with you these final hours
And then together enter a new year.

By gentle powers lovingly surrounded,
with patience we’ll endure, let come what may.
God is with us at night and in the morning
and certainly on every future day.

The worries of the old year still torment us.
We’re troubled still by long and wicked days.
Oh Lord, give our frightened souls the healing
For which You’ve chastened us in many ways.
…

And though You offer us the cup so heavy.
So painful, it’s the most that we can stand.
Not faltering, with thanks we will accept it
And take it as a gift from your good hand.
…

And should it be Your will once more to grant us.
To see the world and to enjoy the sun,
Then we will all the past events remember
And finally our life with you is one.
…

D. Bonhoeffer. Dec 1944
(transl. by Ulrich Schaffer) 

”

This post is part of our 12 Days of Christmas Series 2023/24: “Reclaiming Joy,” a Contemplative Journey towards the heart of Christmas. You can find all previous posts here. To subscribe or to upgrade your subscription click here. To share your thoughts with us, respond to this email or comment below.

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