Prayer for Christmas

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I beseech Thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Arise, my soul! employ this festival for the glory of God and thine own edification, and say: O Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, would that every drop of my blood were a tongue to praise Thy love and grace and mercy!

God is love! This my heart and mind acknowledge on this holy festival. Thy love has found a way, of which no angel nor man would ever have thought, to bring men to salvation. The second Person of the Godhead became man in order to sanctify and cleanse human nature! O Blessed Jesus! Everlasting praise and thanks be unto Thee for Thy Incarnation and Nativity. Thou becamest a Child of man, that we might become children of God. Our human nature is now truly exalted; for Thou hast united it with Thy divinity, and hast introduced it into the counsels of the Holy Trinity. O Love! O Grace! As certainly as the human nature is united with the divine in Thee, so certainly is there established between God and men an eternal friendship, an eternal reconciliation, an eternal peace, an eternal love. When God beholds us in His Son, He cannot behold us otherwise than with favor; for He who spared not His only begotten Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things, — the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, peace, life and salvation?

O the depth of the love of Jesus, who was willing to be born as a tender Infant, that He might sanctify our sinful birth! who increased in wisdom and stature, that He might sanctify our youth! “All hail, Thou noble Guest, this morn, whose love did not the sinner scorn! In my distress Thou comest to me. What thanks shall I return to Thee?” O tenderest Friend of souls! my Brother! In Thee I have a Helper in sorrow, a Deliverer in trouble, a Saviour when my sins terrify me, a Stay in need, a Support in death. Thou art the light that lightens me, the Way that leads me to the Father, the Truth that teaches me, the Life that gives me life. Thou art my Righteousness, who justifiest and savest me; my High priest, who intercedest for me, and blessest me; the Lamb of the Sacrifice for my sins, the full ransom for my transgressions.

O blessed Holy Spirit! How great is Thy love in permitting this comfort, this joy, this salvation to be again proclaimed to me! I rejoice from the heart on this holy festival, and say: My Jesns is mine; His heaven is mine. The Child that is born is for me, for me; the Son that is given is for me, for me. He has acquired and bestows upon me the grace of God, divine sonship, and an eternal inheritance! O Jesus, whom I in spirit behold and gaze upon in the manger, how lovely, how kind art Thou! grant me grace, that I may never forget Thee, but keep Thee ever in my heart, on my lips, and before my eyes. O my Salvation! sanctify me; I yield myself to Thee with all that I have and am. O my Bridegroom, embrace me. For Thee I will live, Thee I will serve, and out of love for Thee I will renounce the world and its pleasures. Let my heart be Thy manger-bed. Dwell in it in time and eternity. Fold and keep me in Thy love, that I may find rest, peace, comfort, safety, and salvation in Thee. I am now no longer lost; for Jesus has become man. Believing on Him I shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God is my Friend, because I am in Christ by faith, and Jesus lives in me. I fear not death; for in death I have life. I fear not the accusations of conscience on account of my sins; for Jesus intercedes for me. Amen.