Here’s a Christmas prayer of praise, invocation and commitment from the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website.
Christmas Eve Prayer
Omnipresent God, long ago you sent your angels through the midnight of the sleeping world to tell the shepherds Christ was born in Bethlehem: come to our dark world, and stir our hearts to hear again their message of your love in Christ. Aided by your Spirit, may we grow in faith and understanding of your purposes, and so be moved to wonder and to praise.
O God most joyful, on this night of expectant wonder, we tread again the path to Bethlehem and to the child whose birth was heralded by prophets, proclaimed by angels, and welcomed by shepherds. Open our eyes to see in that infant your loving purposes, and stir up within us the spirit of adoring praise. Embracing God, in the quietness of this hour, touch our understanding with your Holy Spirit, that we may know again in true reality the wonder of your love in Jesus Christ; and though there was no room in Bethlehem’s inn, help us to make room in the busy-ness of the world, in our daily life, that our lives may show Christ's love, and our hearts receive Christ's peace.
Jesus Christ, born coloured and poor, welcomed by working women and kings, come to our world and heal our deep divisions, that we may be not white and black, male and female, employer and employed, but the children of God, seeing you, our Lord, in one another.
All thanks to you, generous God, for the gift of Christ, light in our darkness and hope of the world, whom you have sent to save all humanity. With singing angels, let us praise your name, and tell the earth this story, so that all may walk together, work together, eat together and in the breaking of bread, one with another, may feel our hearts inflamed and our souls sustained. Amen.
— adapted from Prayers for Sunday Services. Posted on the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website.
For more worship resources for Advent and Christmas, see the indexes at the top right side of this blog, or click on Advent or Christmas in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.
