Today is Monday the 3 January, the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, in the season of Christmas.


Maximilian sings, ‘Building You A Throne’.

Today’s reading is from the letter to the Philippians.

Philippians 2:1-11

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

   did not regard equality with God

   as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

   taking the form of a slave,

   being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

   he humbled himself

   and became obedient to the point of death—

   even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him

   and gave him the name

   that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

   every knee should bend,

   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

   that Jesus Christ is Lord,

   to the glory of God the Father.

‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.’

How is my mind similar to the mind of Jesus?

How is my mind different to his?

At the beginning of this new year, what do I need to let go of to make more space for God to act within me?

As I listen again I imagine the manger holding Jesus as a vulnerable baby. As I approach this scene I bend my knees to worship the Christ Child.

What words are on my lips and in my heart?

In the moments that remain, I rest in silence and ask Jesus to align my mind with his.

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.