Sunday, January 11
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Adapter: John W. Work

Refrain:
Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills, and ev’rywhere; go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night, behold, throughout the heavens there shone a holy light. Refrain

The shepherds feared and trembled when lo, above the earth rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth. Refrain

Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn. Refrain

Sunday, January 11
The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills, and ev’rywhere.

What will we bring with us from this Advent and Christmas season into 2026? One of the gifts of this season is that it reminds us of the centrality of joy—a disposition that has consistently colored the music we’ve prayed with over the past weeks. Joy certainly drives this song, but even the hymns that express our longing and watching and waiting for a savior point us toward the expectant joy of God’s people.

Joy is the mark of a Christian by virtue of our Baptism, which patterns our existence on Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. The coming of our Savior, and the divine life he shares with us, makes us God’s own beloved children and offers us unending hope. What a wonderous gift that deserves to be shouted and shared over the hills and everywhere!

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, our beginning and end, through our baptism, you open to us the mystery of new life. Help me empty myself in love as you did, that I may find joy in following you. Emmanuel, bring me abundant life.

Ponder Today
How has this Christmas season shaped me, and what do I want to carry with me into ordinary time?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, our beginning and end, you come to share every part of being human, and you destroyed the power of sin and death. Grant that I may find joy in following you to new life. Emmanuel, bring me abundant joy.

Saturday, January 10
Christmas Weekday

Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills, and ev’rywhere; go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

Our hymn for today and tomorrow hails from the tradition of African American spiritual music. Originating among people who were enslaved, its authorship is uncertain, but it was passed along orally until it was published in 1907 by John Wesley Work Jr., a Black teacher and musician from Nashville. The people whose voices created this song faced some of the worst of our humanity, yet music helped them proclaim their faith.

This song does not plead or suggest that we should share the news of the birth of Jesus Christ—it commands us to go tell it from the highest place we can find. His holy birth needs to be known by all—not just believers, not just people in our circle, not just children, and not just those who are suffering, but everyone.

Prayer for Morning
Holy One, you were born into poverty in the cold, dark night, and all things came to be through you and continue to have life because of you. Grant me the grace to conform myself to you so that others may see you and call you Lord. Jesus, help me proclaim your kingdom.

Ponder Today
What difference does Jesus’s birth make in my life?

Prayer for Evening
Holy One, you are the light who has come to enlighten everyone. Illuminate the darkness of this world and the shadowy corners of my life with your love, that I may testify to your light. Lord Jesus, shine in me.

Friday, January 9
Christmas Weekday

Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we; let all within us praise His holy name.

“O Holy Night” has its origins in France in 1843 and was adapted to English in 1855. It became a popular hymn in the northern US states because the third verse resonated with abolitionists: “Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease.”

The abolitionists were right: we are all brothers and sisters joined together in Christ. But the consequences of his coming don’t stop with that fact: Jesus continues to enter our experience and act in our relationships. If God is love, and Jesus is God’s love in the full embrace of our humanity, then we participate in that love whenever we offer ourselves in self-gift to others. When we imitate Christ, we allow him to love through us.

Prayer for Morning
Christ the Lord, your love binds me to all other people. Perfect my love with unselfishness, patience, and generosity so I may make a more complete gift of myself to the people in my life. Dear Jesus, refine my heart.

Ponder Today
How can I call upon Jesus to deepen my love for someone today?

Prayer for Evening
Christ the Lord, your coming inaugurated God’s reign here. Let me participate in your kingdom more fully so I can join your people in raising a chorus of grateful joy. Dear Jesus, let all within me praise you.

Thursday, January 8
Christmas Weekday

Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born! O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Ask the music director at your parish about “O Holy Night” and they’ll tell you that it takes a lot of guts to lead a congregation through it—the wide vocal range makes it notoriously difficult. Yet, in the right hands, this music swells and soars and takes our longing hearts with it.

It’s a good tune to convey the thrill of hope and rejoicing we feel at the undeserved and total gift of self by which God comes to us in Jesus. We are unable to escape our sin and error, as the hymn describes, but we have a way to the Father through Jesus. Christ was born to be our Savior who knows our need and is no stranger to our weakness.

Prayer for Morning
Dear Savior, your birth among us broke a new and glorious morning upon our humanity. Shine the warm rays of your light into my life this day. Jesus, friend, I come alive in you.

Ponder Today
When do I lose sight of my worth—and how can I invite Jesus into those experiences?

Prayer for Evening
Dear Savior, as this Christmas season draws to an end, I stand by your cradle with glowing heart. Despite a weary world, I continue to rejoice. In you, I sense the depth of God’s love for me—help me make this love the most important reality in my life. Jesus, help me find my worth in you.

Thursday, January 8, and Friday, January 9

O Holy Night
Author: Placide Cappeau | Translator: John S. Dwight

O holy night! the stars are brightly shining; it is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope—the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming, with glowing hearts by his cradle we stand. So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, here came the Wise Men from Orient land. The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger, in all our trials born to be our Friend.

He knows our need—to our weakness is no stranger. Behold your King, before Him lowly bend! Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another; his law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we; let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

Wednesday, January 7
Christmas Weekday

Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel born is the King of Israel.

The word “Noel” has its roots in the Latin natalis, for “birth.” In French, it came to refer to Christmas, connotations that appear in English with our Nativity scenes. It is a strange word to repeat so often in this hymn, but maybe there is something significant in this simple refrain.

We sing of the “first” Noel with Jesus’s birth, but his coming to us is not an event fixed in only one time and place. His birth was the definitive movement of God’s arrival to our humanity, a movement that continues today. Here and now, in your prayer this morning, Jesus is coming to you, inviting you to receive him in the particularities of your experience today. As we repeat “Noel” with this song, let us use it as a longing invitation for Jesus to be born within us anew.

Prayer for Morning
Merciful Father, you reach for me in your Son, who comes to share life with me. With your grace, help me receive the new life Christ brings and find in him the answer to my longing. God of Love, draw me to you.

Ponder Today
What part of my life most needs to receive Jesus’s healing and life-giving presence today?

Prayer for Evening
Merciful Father, you send your life-giving Spirit to renew me and guide my heart. Enlighten and strengthen me to do your will and live in your peace. God of Love, dwell in me.

Tuesday, January 6
Christmas Weekday

The first Noel the angel did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay, in fields where they lay keeping their sheep, on a cold winter’s night that was so deep.

The first half of our hymn for today and tomorrow draws us to the shepherds we know from our Nativity scenes. No one considered these outsiders important—they were nomads, out of the loop of the village news. They smelled. Yet these were the first people to receive the good news of the newborn king. Why?

Of the people within a one-mile radius of Jesus’s birth, these shepherds were the poorest and most marginalized—they needed the good news he came to proclaim. From the moment of his arrival, even as an infant, Jesus is already accomplishing his mission. He comes to share this good news with us and to involve us in sharing it with others.

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, our newborn King, draw near to me now, and lead me to others who
need this good news today. Jesus, my star, guide me in your way today.

Ponder Today
Who are the outsiders in my community, and how can I share good news with them?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, our newborn King, grant me peace in my own seeking and use me as a herald of your love. Jesus, my star, lead me to deeper faith, hope, and love.

Monday, January 5
Christmas Weekday

O star of wonder, star of light, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.

The Magi are famous for the gifts they brought—gold, frankincense, and myrrh—which communicated their understanding of the power this new king would bear. Their gold was a tribute to his royalty and an invitation for him to reign even from his home in Bethlehem. The fragrance of frankincense was associated with worship—they wanted to be part of a people who recognized the divine life of this king. With their myrrh—a burial perfume—they acknowledge a king who has come to share everything with his people, even their death.

The most impressive thing about these gifts is the preparation they involved—the kings anticipated whom they would find and were ready to recognize his significance with offerings that honored the lordship of Jesus.

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, help me work toward establishing your kingdom today—both within myself and in my community. Jesus, our King, help me to follow your way.

Ponder Today
How can I make a gift of my life to God today in response to the mystery of his reign in me?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, you share in every aspect of my humanity—even death—as a way to conquer everything that might stand in the way of God’s love for me. Deepen my faith in your love for me. Jesus, my King, reign in my heart.

January 4
Epiphany Sunday

We three kings of Orient are; bearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.

We can imagine that the Magi of Matthew’s gospel were truth-seekers. T hey studied the heavens because they were curious about the world and our place in it. Their study led them to follow a strange sign in the sky, a phenomenon that they didn’t fully understand that led them beyond the familiar. Instead of dismissing it because it was inconvenient, they pursued it, yearning to know more.

These wise men seem to know only that this star they followed was pointing to a new king. They weren’t seeking him in order to curry favor or develop an alliance—they just wanted to understand and establish themselves in right relationship to him. They came prepared to honor this king and probably couldn’t have imagined that he was a newborn living in lowly surroundings, and yet they followed where Truth seemed to lead.

Prayer for Morning
God of Truth, all of creation bears your fingerprints. Deepen my curiosity to perceive you in new ways, and grant me the courage to follow where you are leading. Mighty One, I seek you today.

Ponder Today
What inconvenient signs might be leading you to a deeper truth about your life?

Prayer for Evening
God of Truth, help me rest in you who are the deepest truth of my life. Mighty One, attune my heart to yours.