The devotion of December 31st and the prayers of the last day of the year
31 December
NEW YEAR'S EVE
335 - (Pope from 31/01/314 to 31/12/335)
Saint Sylvester I, pope, who for many years managed the Church wisely, in the time when the emperor Constantine built the venerable basilicas and the Council of Nicaea acclaimed Christ the Son of God. On this day his body was deposed in Rome in cemetery of Priscilla. (Roman martyrology)
PRAYER TO GOD THE FATHER
Do, we ask you, Almighty God, that the solemnity of your blessed confessor and Pontiff Sylvester increases our devotion and assures us of salvation. Amen.
PRAYERS FOR THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR
O Almighty God, Lord of time and eternity, I thank you because throughout the course of this year you have accompanied me with your grace and you have filled me with your gifts and your love. I want to express to you my adoration, my praise and my thanks. I humbly ask you for forgiveness, O Lord, of the sins committed, of so many weaknesses and of so many miseries. Accept my desire to love you more and to faithfully fulfill your will for the whole time of life that you will still grant me. I offer you all my sufferings and the good works that I have accomplished with your grace. Let them be useful, O Lord, for my salvation and for all my loved ones. Amen.
Here we are, Lord, in front of you after having walked so much this year. If we feel tired, it is not because we have traveled a long way, or we have covered who knows what endless ways. It is because, unfortunately, many steps, we have consumed them on our paths, and not on yours: following the involved paths of our business stubbornness, and not the indications of your Word; relying on the success of our exhausting maneuvers, and not on the simple modules of trusting abandonment in you. Perhaps never, as in this twilight of the year, do we hear Peter's words ours: "We worked hard all night, and we didn't take anything." Either way, we want to thank you equally. Because, by making us contemplate the poverty of the harvest, you help us understand that without you we cannot do anything.
TE DEUM (Italian)
We praise you, God *
We proclaim you Lord.
O eternal Father, *
the whole earth adores You.
The angels sing to you *
and all the powers of heaven:
with the Cherubim and the Seraphim
they don't stop saying:
The heavens and the earth *
they are full of your glory.
The glorious choir of the Apostles applauds you *
and the white ranks of the martyrs;
the voices of the prophets
unite in your praise; *
the Holy Church,
wherever he proclaims your glory:
Father of infinite majesty;
O Christ, King of glory, *
eternal Son of the Father,
You were born of the Virgin Mother
for the salvation of man.
Winner of death, *
you have opened the kingdom of heaven to believers.
You sit at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father. *
We believe that
(The following verse is sung on one's knees)
Rescue your children, Lord, *
that you redeemed with your precious blood.
Receive us in your glory *
in the assembly of Saints.
Save your people, Lord, *
guide and protect your children.
Every day we bless you, *
we praise your name forever.
Worthy today, Lord, *
to guard us without sin.
Have mercy on us, Lord, *
have mercy.
You are our hope, *
we will not be confused forever.
V) We bless the Father, and the Son with the Holy Spirit.
A) Let us praise and glorify him over the centuries.
V) Blessed are you, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven.
R) Commendable and glorious and highly exalted over the centuries.