Christmas Prayers

These Christmas prayers are excerpted from Jeanie and David Gushee’s A Morning and Evening Prayerbook, a 365-day collection of quick morning and evening prayers. The ones below appeared on or around December 25th. Pray them aloud with your family, send them to your mentees as encouragement, or read them yourself and let them speak to your heart.

Today Christ is born of the Virgin in Bethlehem.
Today He who knows no beginning now begins to be,
and the Word is made flesh.
The powers of heaven greatly rejoice,
and the earth with mankind makes glad . . .
the shepherds proclaim the marvel, and we cry aloud without ceasing:
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will among men!
Amen.

– Eastern Orthodox prayer

Sweet Child of Bethlehem,
grant that we may share with all our hearts
in this profound mystery of Christmas.
Pour into the hearts of men the peace
which they sometimes seek so desperately,
and which You alone can give them.
Help them to know one another better and to live as brothers,
children of the same Father.
Awaken in their hearts love and gratitude for Your infinite goodness;
join them together in Your love;
and give us all Your heavenly peace.
Amen.

– Pope John XXIII

Let Kindness go from us to others with every gift,
and good desires with every Christmas greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with a clear heart.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children,
and the Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
Amen.

– Martin Luther

O Lord Jesus Christ
make me worthy to understand the profound mystery
of Your holy incarnation,
which You have worked for our sake and for our salvation.
Truly there is nothing so great and wonderful as this,
that You, my God, who are the Creator of all things,
should become a creature,
so that we should become like God.
You have humbled Yourself and made Yourself small
that we might be made mighty.
You have taken the form of a servant,
so that You might confer upon us a royal and diving beauty.
You, who are beyond our understanding,
have made Yourself understandable to us in Jesus Christ…
You who are the untouchable One, have made Yourself touchable to us . . .
Blessed are You, O Lord, for coming to earth as a man.
You were born that You might die, and in dying
that You might procure our salvation.
O marvelous and indescribable love!
Amen.

– Angela of Foligno