Additional Prayers and Reflections

I have found these prayers so helpful - I hope you do to. May I wish you a very Happy Christmas.

To Bring Salvation

The Lord of the world did not consider it right to allow human beings,
for love of whom everything had been made,
to be besieged by sin and to be sold like slaves to death.
For this reason he assumed human form,
hid his invisible nature under visible guise,
and kept the visible nature free from the stain of sin.
Undoubtedly, it would have been easy for him
to save the human race without assuming the garment of the flesh.
He could have overthrown the power of death by a simple act of will.
He could have made the father of that power, sin,
disappear by exiling it from the earth in such a way
that no trace of it would remain on the earth.
Instead of that, he chose to demonstrate the holiness of his providential care.
To restore salvation to human beings
he did not employ as his servants the angels or archangels,
nor cause a piercing voice to resound from heaven.
He preferred to build for himself a chamber in the womb of the Virgin
and from there to come among us.
For this reason we think of him as man and adore him as God.
Begotten of the Father before the beginning of time,
he took of the Virgin a visible body.
He is the Being who is both new and pre-existent.

Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus
(393-460)

Prayer
Still, my Soul be Still

As I gaze in awe and thanksgiving at the manger soften my heart that I may
again be touched deeply by the truths of this season.

I offer my life in humility - help me recognise I am an inheritor of your kingdom and share in your work and joy.
Prepare our hearts and soothe the sadness that hinders us from feeling the joy and hope which his presence will lavish on us. Amen