Worship for Christmas Eve

A service of readings and music.

Prayer for Christmas Eve

0 Holy One,
We have expected you to come in power and majesty
to sit on a high throne, the world as Your footstool.

Instead, You came in an infant, born to poor parents, far from home,
their future uncertain, their past a story of exile and rebellion,
of war and tenuous peace.

We pray for the children who come to be born this night
in places of hunger and chaos, that they may be comforted,
that they may be fed, that they may be named and remembered,
just as Your Son, Jesus of Nazareth.

We pray for peace, 0 Holy One,
that it may come in unexpected places
to all whose hearts are open and waiting.

We pray for joy, 0 dancing Spirit,
that where there is discord, there may be Your Holy Harmony,
gathering all peoples into one family.

We pray for comfort, 0 Holy Healer,
for those who are ill or near to death, for all who care for them,
for those whom we name in the silence of our hearts.

We pray that the stories and songs of this night
will remain in our hearts and on our lips,
so that others will glimpse in us The Christs who has come,
who abides in us, who will come again in the fullness of time. Amen.

Ray Hobbs