Guided Daily Prayer (Series 2)

December 25, 2023
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Instructions: The underlined text are headings and do not need to be read. [Brackets] are instructions to be followed but not necessarily read. FOR INDIVIDUAL PRAYER: I suggest you read the prayer sheet aloud, but reading silently is fine too. FOR GROUP PRAYER: have one person act as leader. The leader reads the regular print and everyone reads the Bold Italic Type together.

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Opening Sentences:
Open our hearts to receive your Son, that we may open our doors to welcome all people as sisters and brothers, and establish your household in our time. ^ff

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God…And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. (John 1, 14, 16-18)

Praying Together:
Lord, open our lips.

Our mouth shall proclaim your praise. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.  Amen.

Confession:*
God of glory, you sent your Son to take away our sins:  As we celebrate Jesus’ birth we ask you to change us, heal us, make us your children.  Help us to praise you with our lives for the gift of Jesus.
Keep us from neglecting to honor Jesus with gifts of mercy and kindness, from failing to welcome your perfect love with love for each other,
From allowing lesser lights to blind us to the Light that overcomes, from forgetting the call of the needy and the cry of the world for peace.
We give you thanks for the love of Jesus, our friend and Lord, who lives and reigns among us. Amen.

From Psalm 98:
O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have given him victory. The Lord has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. 

He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.  All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.  

[Silent Prayer; or Music may be listened to; or a Hymn is sung.]

Prayers of the People:*
God of all creation, lift up our eyes to the hills, open our ears to the roaring sea, open our hearts to those around us that we may praise you with our whole lives.  For the coming of your Word to live among us, we give you grateful praise.   [Silent Prayer]

We praise you, O God, for the gift of your Son. We thank you for the healing in his wings, and for the light and life he brings.  For the coming of the Light that cannot be overcome, we give you grateful thanks.    [Silent Prayer]

Give us grace to be present to those in sorrow this day, to weep with those who weep.  Grant your healing presence to the sick, the grieving, the dying; comfort them with your peace. For the coming of your Son, who comforts us in our all our troubles, we give you grateful thanks.      [Silent Prayer]

Give us grateful hearts for all of the blessings you have provided for us, all we have is yours.  Help us to draw all people to the joy that is the light of your Son in the world.  For the coming of the one who gives us hope in all circumstances, we give you grateful thanks.      [Silent Prayer]

Hear our prayer as we pray together;

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Closing prayer:
Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!  Amen.

*Blair Gilmer Meeks, Season of Light and Hope, p. 94
^ff From Revised Common Lectionary Prayers, Consultation on Common Texts.
Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. Nativity with Children, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59186