Monday, December 29
Christmas Weekday

Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian, fear: for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.

We know Jesus as the Word—God’s self-communication to us. Jesus speaks to us through his words and actions as they are recorded in the gospels and in the ongoing friendship through which he is present to our everyday living. In our Christmas feast, however, we recall his infancy, when he was unable to say or do anything. At his coming—the moment when heaven and earth met—the only thing the Son of God was able to communicate was his need and dependence and vulnerability, and the only people he could communicate with were two parents far from home.

What a strange thing for God to say to us with his Word! The One who created us has confined himself to the smallest, quietest part of our experience, where he fully inhabits it. Nothing we experience is foreign to him—he is the Word who pleads for us through his silence.

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, Word of the Father, you reveal that God is love. Conform my heart to yours that I may enter your life by giving my own away. Word of Love, speak to me today.

Ponder Today
What word can I silently share with others through my actions today?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, Word of the Father, you came to bring us salvation. Spur my heart with urgent praise that I may enthrone you there as my King. Word of Love, help me hear your voice.

Sunday, December 28
Feast of the Holy Family

What Child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?

Our hymn for today and tomorrow, “What Child Is This,” reminds us that Christ, our King, comes to us as a child sleeping on Mary’s lap. Imagine her in a quiet moment of rest, gazing upon him as an infant. With her, we can see his slow breathing, his eyes twitching below the lids, and his tiny mouth drawing whispers of breath. As she adjusts her legs, picture the way his back arches into a spontaneous stretch before he settles back into her familiar warmth.

Imagine Joseph watching the two of them, wondering what kind of mystery the three of them have entered, and even more enthralled by the way a new kind of love has taken shape before him. Where will this love lead the new family?

Prayer for Morning
Mary, Mother of God, you hold me with the same tender care with which you held Jesus. As my mother in faith, help me to grow in hope and love through your Son. Blessed Mary, pray for me today.

Ponder Today
In what ways might my family be leading me to more clearly see and rely on God’s love?

Prayer for Evening
Joseph, Guardian of Mary and Jesus, you wondered at the mystery of love as it grew before you in family life. Help me to also ponder with reverent gratitude the ways love takes shape in my life. Blessed Joseph, pray for me.

Saturday, December 27

Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings. Mild he lays his glory by, born that we no more may die, born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth.

Christ comes to us enfleshed in the circumstances of our daily lives, just as God came in the infant Jesus to Mary and Joseph. They were faithful people who worshiped in synagogues and the Temple, but the bulk of their role in bearing and raising God’s Son took place in the context of washing clothes and fixing wobbly tables and negotiating the opinions of in-laws and neighbors. This means that Jesus also comes to us in the context of our own ordinary, daily routines and challenges.

Yes, Jesus came to “raise us from the earth” and to “give us second birth” in communion with the Triune God. With our Christmas feast, we celebrate the mystery that we don’t have to go searching for this new life—he comes to us.

Prayer for Morning
Sun of Righteousness, splendor of the Father, you bring me light and life. Help me to recognize your glory in the parts of my life that feel most dreary and dull. Prince of Peace, raise me to new life in you.

Ponder Today
In what area of my life do I most desire to experience new life?

Prayer for Evening
Sun of Righteousness, in you I need not fear death and nothingness—I don’t even have to fear my own brokenness and cycles of sin. Prince of Peace, make me whole in you.

Friday, December 26
Christmas Weekday

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy.

“Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!” But does he? What signs do we have of his kingdom? If we celebrate the coming of our Savior at Christmas, why doesn’t today look different from last Thursday?

As our Advent longing becomes Christmas joy, we continue tending the interior space where friendship with Jesus takes root. This is the first place we encounter God’s kingdom and where Jesus’s life takes shape in us. This doesn’t mean that changing the world stage is beyond our abilities, only that it comes as a fruit of the life of Christ within us. This divine life overflows in our service and advocacy for justice and peace, as it did for St. Stephen whose feast marks this day. But our task for today is to repeat the joy sounding through creation at the coming of our Savior.

Prayer for Morning
Mighty One, you sent your Son as our Savior. I join with all of your people as we use both music and attentive stillness to sing your praise. God of creation, let your joy resound in me.

Ponder Today
How can I let the Savior reign in me today? How might that lead me to joy?

Prayer for Evening
Mighty One, your Son comes to draw all of creation to you. Give me ears to hear the sounding joy of this eternal destiny. God of creation, let me repeat for others your self-giving love.

December 25
Christmas Day

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare him room, and heav’n and nature sing, and heav’n and nature sing, and heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing.

This song is structured joy. The second half of each verse is simply the same phrase stacked on top of itself over and over until it tumbles over. It’s hard to sing without feeling some of that momentum thrumming in your chest.

“Let every heart prepare him room,” we sing. Now is the time to receive our King. Our feast is marked by great joy because of the gift we’ve been given. Although we’ve been working to increase our capacity to receive him, he still comes to us undeservedly and gratuitously. Today we find God’s grace crashing over us beyond what we’ve been preparing for, beyond even what we can grasp!

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, our Lord, you bring heaven and nature together, and we join the chorus of creation today to praise you. I trust your love to conquer my brokenness and imperfection. Jesus, my King, thank you for your deep and abiding love.

Ponder Today
What glimpses of joy—small or large—can I delight in today?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, our Lord, you were present at creation and rule the universe—and yet you humbled yourself to join our wounded world. I offer you gratitude and praise as I contemplate the magnitude of this gift. Jesus, my King, may your love rule over me.

Wednesday, December 24
Christmas Eve

Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright ‘round yon virgin mother and child! Holy infant, so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace.

Tonight marks the end of our Advent preparation as we stand on the threshold of our Christmas feast and look back at how our hearts have been formed by the music and prayer we’ve engaged in together. The songs we’ve been praying with have created a disposition within us—something that begins as a feeling but is more like a posture. The music has been giving us shoes to stand in before God and has shaped the silence of our prayer.

This holy night may be full of the sounds of preparation and conversation and family and celebration but is also full of solemn, quiet wonder. Tonight, we bow before the gift of God with-us, who not only waits to meet us in prayer but also comes to stand in our shoes.

Prayer for Morning
Christ our Savior, as I listen for your voice speaking in my life, help me to hear your heart beating with mine, for you are closer than I can imagine. Lord Jesus, make me calm and bright.

Ponder Today
How can I step into silence today—even just a few minutes—to anchor my entry into this feast?

Prayer for Evening
Christ our Savior, you are the Son of God and love’s pure light. Help me see your glory streaming toward us. Lord Jesus, bring me your heavenly peace.

Creator of the Stars of Night
Translator: J. M. Neale

Creator of the stars of night,
your people’s everlasting light,
O Christ, Redeemer of us all,
we pray you, hear us when we call.
In sorrow that the ancient curse
should doom to death a universe,
you came to save a ruined race
with healing gifts of heav’nly grace.
When earth drew on to darkest night,
you came, but not in splendor bright,
not as a king, but the child
of Mary, virgin mother mild.
At your great name, majestic now,
all knees must bend, all hearts must
bow; all things on earth with one accord join those in heav’n to call you Lord. To God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, Three in One, praise, honor, might, and glory be from age to age eternally.

Monday, December 22
Fourth Week of Advent

When earth drew on to darkest night, you came, but not in splendor bright, not as a king, but the child of Mary, virgin mother mild.

Here, on the other side of the winter solstice, is a good time to appreciate light as a precious commodity and acknowledge how much we depend on it. As much as we depend on the natural light of the sun, we need the light of God’s love even more. When we turn away from the Light of the World, we get lost, we stumble, and we lose hope.

Sometimes this means we fall into the darkness of sin, but even more often, we live in a kind of gray dusk where everything looks the same. It can be hard to believe that there’s something transcendent behind the dullness of the ordinary, where little changes about our lives. Without a sense of wonder, our daily lives can seem burdensome.

Jesus came to be with us, which means these burdens are places where he is ready to share his everlasting life and light with us.

Prayer for Morning
Light of the World, you came to bring us divine life, becoming human in all things. Help me welcome your love, which brings warmth and color, so I can see clearly and live with boldness. Jesus, bring me your light.

Ponder Today
How can I invite Jesus to be with me in the insignificant parts of my day?

Prayer for Evening
Light of the World, we walk in darkness when we try to live without you. Draw me again to your everlasting light, where I find eternal purpose. Jesus, bring me your love.

Sunday, December 21
Fourth Week of Advent
Love

Creator of the stars of night, your people’s everlasting light, O Christ, Redeemer of us all, we pray you, hear us when we call.

In this last week of Advent, in the final days before our Christmas feast, we take on the disposition of expectant stillness. In today’s gospel reading, we join Mary as she visits her cousin Elizabeth—both of them aware of a great mystery unfolding in their bodies, one that will change the course of history but remains hidden.

This ancient hymn we pray with today and tomorrow captures a paradox we embrace every Advent: God is presented as Creator of the stars of night, which are grand, vast, distant, and cold; at the same time, God came to us not as a powerful king but in that tender moment when parents hold their infant for the first time. The fact that both of these images of God are true pulls us into wonder and humility.

Prayer for Morning
Almighty God, you are our creator and the one who fashioned the churning galaxies. Despite your power and majesty, help me to believe that you are close to me. Come near to me and increase my capacity to perceive you present and growing within me. Creator, make me new.

Ponder Today
When will I be able to practice wonder and humility today?

Prayer for Evening
Almighty God, you are a mystery unfolding in each of our lives. Help me to remember that each act of love—even the seemingly insignificant—is a participation in your life. Creator, help me see your nearness.

Saturday, December 20
Third Week of Advent

Dear Savior, haste! Come, come to earth. Dispel the night and show your face, and bid us hail the dawn of grace.

Jesus has already come to earth—so what are we praying for so urgently? Advent is a time to cultivate the virtue of patience. In becoming aware of our need for a savior, we develop an urgent longing to encounter him soon—now. The gap between our longing and his coming is a place where we can sit firmly to wait for him to show his face.

This kind of waiting is the practice of Christian hope. Unless Jesus’s second coming arrives before then, we know the world will not be drastically different on December 25. But we can be different. Indeed, we are supposed to be different because of our watching and waiting.

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, you came to earth two thousand years ago, and you will return one day to transform this world with your glory. Until then, come to the patch of earth I will tread today and be my companion. Dear Savior, I wait for you.

Ponder Today
When will I encounter impatience today, and how can I translate that into prayer?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, as we prepare to welcome you anew into our lives with our Christmas feast, you reveal to us all the ways you are already acting in our experience to bring us life. Draw me closer to the Father with you. Dear Savior, show me your life giving ways.