CHRISTMAS EVE

​PREPARE TO LISTEN with friends and family.
Light a candle and pray: My beloved is mine and I am his. (Song of Songs 2:16)
Request for Presence: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.  (Isaiah 9:2)
READ John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
REFLECTIVE WONDERING
Invite one another to name what stood out to them as they listened; what questions they may have; what was intriguing or confusing.
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER.  (From the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.)
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.
BE SILENT AND STILL (for as long as you want).  Simply be in the presence of Jesus, who loves you, regardless.