Christmas Eve

Waking, working, sleeping, being--

each breath is a breathing of Christ into the world.

~Caryll Houselander

Gentle Us Open

So this is our prayer, Lord: Open us!

Gentle us open, pry, shock, tickle, beguile, knock, amaze, squeeze, any wily way you can us open.

Open us to see your glory

in the coming again of the light of each day,

the light in babies' eyes and lovers' smiles,

the light in the glaze of weariness

that causes us to pause,

the light of truth wherever spoken and done.

Open us to the songs of the angels in the thumping of traffic,

in the rustle of shoppers, the canopy of pre-dawn silence,

in the hum of hope, the wail of longing within us,

in the cries of our brothers and sisters for justice and peace,

and in our own souls' throb toward goodness.

Open us, then, to share the gifts you have given us

and to the deep yearning to share them gladly and boldly,

to sweat for justice, to pay the cost of attention,

to initiate the exchange of forgiveness,

to risk a new beginning free of past grievances,

to engage with each other in the potluck of joy

and to find the gifts of a larger love and deeper peace.

Open us, Lord to miracles of the ordinary,

to the breath-giving, heart-pounding wonder of birth,

a mother's fierce love, a father's tender fidelities,

a baby's barricade-dissolving burble and squeak,

that we may be born anew ourselves

into the "don't be afraid" fullness of your image,

the fullness of a just and joyful human community,

the fullness of your kingdom,

in the fullness of your time;

through the eternal grace of

your son, our brother Jesus.

Amen.

~ Ted Loder, My Heart in my Mouth

Song: O Holy Night, Libera