The prayer for the night before Christmas speaks of how God fills our hearts with joy as we prepare to celebrate Chirstmas and asks that we might be ready to welcome Christ our judge when he comes at the end of time. It’s a sobering thought....this same Christ in the manger, who died for us on the cross, will come at the end of time to see whether we have loved others as he has loved us. Here’s the prayer:
O God, who gladden us year by year
as we wait in hope for our redemption,
grant that, just as we joyfully welcome
your Only Begotten Son as our Redeemer,
we may also merit to face him confidently
when he comes again as our Judge.
as we wait in hope for our redemption,
grant that, just as we joyfully welcome
your Only Begotten Son as our Redeemer,
we may also merit to face him confidently
when he comes again as our Judge.
The prayer for midnight Mass is prayed amidst the twinkling lights and the stars above which remind us of the coming of Christ, the light of the world. One of my mother’s most prized posessions is a portrait of a young Christ with the aura of a halo about him, called The Light of the World. Without Christ, this world would be hopeflessly dark....in the light of his love for us, even the darkest moments can be radiant with joy! It is a light which was born in a manger, and a light for which we long....gazing to the East, waiting for the Sun of Justice to rise in glory! Here’s the prayer:
O God, who have made this most sacred night
radiant with the splendor of the true light,
grant, we pray, that we,
radiant with the splendor of the true light,
grant, we pray, that we,
who have known the mysteries of his light on earth,
may also delight in his gladness in heaven.
And then there’s the prayer written for the dawn. As the sun rises it warms us amidst the snows of winter. As Christ comes into our hearts, his radiance illumines our mines and lights the path for a loving life. Here’s the prayer:
Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, as we are bathed in the new radiance of your incarnate Word,
that, as we are bathed in the new radiance of your incarnate Word,
the light of faith, which illumines our minds,
may also shine through in our deeds.
may also shine through in our deeds.
And finally, there’s the prayer for Christmas day. It is the most beautiful of all the Christmas Prayers, for iin four short lines it emcompasses the whole of salvation history. It starts with the day God created us in his own image and likeness and endowed us with the dignity of human nature: the God who is love made us for love, and that love is our right and our duty, our reason for being, the very purpose he breathed life into our lungs.
But, the prayer recalls, we rejected that dignity in the sin of our first parents, but still God did not give up on us. Rather, in the saving sacrifice of Jesus, his only-beloved Son, God restored our human dignity.
The prayer ends by repeating the words used by the Priest at Mass every time he puts a little water into the chalice with the wine which will become the Precious Blood of the Lord who became flesh for us. It is a prayer that on this Christmas, the Christ who took on human flesh, may lead us to heaven at the end of time:
O God, who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature
and still more wonderfully restored it,
grant, we pray, that we may share in the divinity of Christ,
grant, we pray, that we may share in the divinity of Christ,
who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
