We have prayed with, and for another, for the kind of Christmas we need and a life that lives up to the Christmas we have received. Today and this week, we pray together for Christmas to endure in our shared lives.
Blessed Father, who has chosen the weak things to confound the mighty:
Give us, your people—so susceptible to size, so easily impressed
by worldly rank and scope—give us, O Father, an eye for mangers tucked away in stables, and an ear for truth whose only fanfare is the rippled intuitions of the heart.
Visit our sick with quiet assurance of your care.
Encircle our bereaved with your warming, healing presence.
Point out markers on the trail for those of us who have lost our way.
And douse with the cold waters of common sense any among us who
might this very day be on the verge of some destructive action or decision.
The race is short, Father, even at its longest, and we desire to run it well, together, and to your glory.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.