Evening Prayer Friday, 18 December 2020

Good evening everyone.  Welcome to Friday evening’s prayers.

1 week from Christmas!  I don’t know about you, but I have found that, despite so much of my life being different this year from any other December I can remember, the days of Advent seemed to have passed very quickly.

I notice that, on the radio and television, several people have referred to Christmas as ‘cancelled’.  I’m afraid I still respond to this with, ‘No, it isn’t!’  While many of our secular arrangements have been changed, and we may have really missed singing carols, the fundamental message and joy of Christmas remains.  I think we have a responsibility to let people know this.

So, as we come to the last week before Christmas, let us spend some time considering the joy of this season and the opportunity we have been given to spend more time reflecting on what the coming of Christ means to us.

Let us pray:

We praise and thank you, Father God, for all that you have given us and done for us, for the people we meet, whether in person or on-line, for the places we go and for all your gifts which enrich our lives.

We thank you for the seasons of the year, which bring rhythm and momentum to our lives.  As Advent draws to a close, we thank you for the time we have had to pause and reflect on the coming of Jesus

• • We compare our lives to his and recognise our mistakes, the things we cold do better and things we have failed to do.
  • We rejoice at the gift of his coming, at the hope and joy this brings into our lives.
  • Help us to build on the thoughts we have had and any decisions we have taken.
  • Help us to take time in the coming days to experience the joy of the presence of Christ in our lives.
  • Help us to remember those who find the approach of Christmas brings them sadness, acrimony or additional stress and, when we can, to offer them our support.

Just as Jesus paid attention to people’s material needs, to their physical and mental health and their spiritual welfare, so we pause at this time to pray for those who have little, those who are sick in mind or body and those who feel lost and confused, with little purpose in their lives.

Approaching Christmas, we pray for people in need, for whom the commercialism of Christmas highlights the disparity between what they have and can afford and what society presents as the norm.

We think of people who struggle on a daily basis, for whom planning for festivities is impossible, or becomes yet another burden.

We think of people throughout the world who do not even know where their next meal is coming from or who watch their loved ones starve.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer

We pray for those who suffer physically

• • from the effects poverty
  • as a consequence of war
  • and from the aftermath of natural disaster
  • We pray, too, for those who work to relieve suffering.  Give them patience, understanding and skill to heal and support emotional ills as well as physical ones.

We pray for all who are bereaved, remembering all who approach Christmas for the first time without one of their loved ones; and those who fear for loved ones who are suffering from the Coronavirus. Be with them in their pain and confusion and help those who try to be alongside them in their grief.

We pray for members of our own congregation who are ill at present or who suffer from long-term illness.

We pray for all who approach Christmas with dread, because the expectation of excitement and conviviality accentuates the loneliness or anxiety they feel in their hearts.

Lord, in your mercy

Hear our prayer

Give us open eyes which see those who suffer

Give us open ears to hear those who cry

Give us hearts which can stay alongside their pain

Give us the words to say, to share your love

Show us how to bring joy, love, peace and hope to all who need to know your care.

We ask our prayers for the sake and in the name of Jesus Christ, the babe of Bethlehem and light of the world.

Amen

Let us join together by saying The Grace.

May the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now, and for ever more.

Amen

Goodnight everyone.  I wish you all a peaceful night and a very happy Christmas.

Rosemary Kearsey