Sunday, December 24, 2023

A Christmas prayer for the sick



O God our healer,
Who sweetened Mara's bitter waters with wood:
Sweeten the bitterness and loneliness of illness with the cross of Christ;
Console the ill with the fellowship of His sufferings and the Holy Spirit's comfort;
Show forth the sufficiency of Your grace and fullness of Your power;
Remind Your people to love, encourage, and pray for them;
Heal the grief of missing out, especially on days of celebration;
Forgive those who have added sorrow by their words and actions, intentional and accidental;
Transform sickrooms and hospital beds into sanctuaries through Your presence;
That the sick and their families may endure these afflictions as seeing You who are invisible,
And rest in Your promises that these sufferings are, even now, working for them an overwhelming, eternal, incomparable weight of glory;
In the name of Jesus,
the Man of sorrows who bore our sickness and pain as well as our sin,
Amen.

A Christmas Prayer for Those Who Feel Invisible



O Sovereign King,
You who see the unseen and forgotten people,
Who sent Your royal angelic herald
To the unclean, uncouth shepherds,
The offscourings of society,
Distant from the rites of public worship,
But not from Your gaze:
Proclaim Your good news of great joy
To the invisible souls on the margins of church and culture now;
Invade our darkness with Your light,
Our fear with Your joy,
Our alienation with Your presence,
Our anonymity with Your attentive delight,
That we also might sound forth Your praises
And herald the glories You proclaim to us,
So that all glory and worship might resound
To Jesus the Savior,
Virgin-born yet God-enfleshed.
Holy and gracious is He.
Blessed be His name.
Amen.

A Christmas Prayer for the Broken Hearts




Most merciful Father,
who draws near to the brokenhearted
and bandages their wounds:
Who but You can heal a broken heart?
Comfort Your bruised and battered children;
Minister to their wounds 
with the intimate companionship of Emmanuel,
God with us,
so that they might discover treasures
in the darkness of their heartache
which they could not have seen
in the sunshine of happier days.
Light of light, our Rescuer and Healer,
in You we ask this.
Amen.