A Christmas Prayer

We pray that each of us and all of us have the grace to, "love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and soul," for it is this commandment and our faithfulness to it that makes the next commandment possible, "to love our neighbor as ourselves." Christ then sends us even beyond and asks us to "love one another as he has loved us."

This is the world that Jesus the Christ rules. This is the world that those who follow Christ make possible. So let us pray for the courage, the vision, the faith, the perseverance, and the humility to step boldly into the Kingdom and take our place.

We pray for those in need of healing. We pray for those who do not have enough. We pray for wisdom to build a community where there is room for all. We pray for discernment as we wait for clarity of first steps in the journey ahead.

We pray for our country in these struggling times. We pray for the women of Iran and the people of Russia and Ukraine. We pray for the Uighur people and all who suffer injustice and persecution. Open our eyes to the evil in our world and give us wisdom and courage to confront it.

We pray in gratitude for all the blessings of our life; for its challenges and its gifts and for all those whose lives have blessed us and made a way for us to be the people God intended.

~Shared by Rev. Karen Hunter, Grace Episcopal Church (Nampa, Idaho)