Christmas Day | Saturday 25 December 2021

Today is Saturday the 25th of December, Christmas Day.

Everyone at Pray As You Go and the Jesuits in Britain would like to wish you a very Happy Christmas!

The Portsmouth Grammar School Chamber Choir sing ‘My Lord Has Come’ by Will Todd.

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 2:15-20
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Most of us are very familiar with this reading.  It can easily wash over us.  Let’s find a point of connection.

Go to the scene where Jesus is lying in a manger . . .

Enter into the scene, perhaps as one of the shepherds or possibly a woman in Bethlehem who is helping Mary with her newborn child . . . who are you? . . .

see the place where Jesus is born . . . and the characters . . . take in the smells . . . look around you . . . at Mary . . . Joseph . . . Jesus . . .

and take Jesus in your arms and hold him . . . . .notice his weight . . . his smell . . . how he moves . . . speak to him . . . you might even sing . . .  

When you’re ready, give the child back to his parents . . . take in the scene before you leave . . .  

What have you noticed about your time with the Holy Family in this scene? Has anything struck you for the first time? Stay with that for a moment or two now…

As we prepare to end this time of prayer on Christmas Day, One Hope Project sing a setting of ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.