PRIEST: Today is a wondrous day … a day for untold rejoicing as we gaze upon the awesome mystery of our God in vulnerable human flesh … the All-powerful contained in the powerless frame of a tiny baby. Looking into the eyes of this child we can only treat every child with immense respect and love, embrace every human person with a divine love. Yet our world is not like that … and too often neither are we. So we repent of all evil, and seeking the way of peace for ourselves and our world: then our joy will be full this day!
READER: Father, come and speak Your Word of Forgiveness
to every human heart:
forgive us when we close our heart to Jesus’ brothers and
sisters,
when there is no room in our nation for the stranger and
refugee;
come free us to welcome Your forgiveness
LORD HAVE MERCY
Jesus, come and speak Your Word of Peace
into the violence and war of our world:
for every anger that we harbour within,
for every injustice that makes some victims,
for being so slow to work for the peace proclaimed at
Your birth…
CHRIST HAVE MERCY
Holy Spirit, come and speak Your Word of Love
to a world that forgets how to accept each other:
for every refusal to love, to heal, to give ourselves in
compassion and sacrifice…
LORD HAVE MERCY
PRIEST: May the Father who has so loved the world that He has
sent His beloved Son embrace you in forgiveness;
May the Son and Saviour Jesus who died to reconcile us all
touch your heart with pardon and peace;
May the Holy Spirit who hovers over this day more brightly
than the Star fill your lives with light and healing;
and may our God who is with us bring us and all the world
to everlasting life…
AMEN!