We pray for Pope Francis this Christmas Day,/ and ask that as he speaks a message of peace and conversion from Rome,/ we would have opened minds and hearts./ We pray to the Lord.
Today we remember the Christmas Truce of 1914/ and ask that truly,/ for Christ's sake/ we would rediscover our humanity/ beneath the inflamed talk of planet-threatening war we hear these days./ We pray to the Lord.
At Christmas,/ we pray for those who pilgrim to the Holy Land,/ and for the Christians,/ Jews and Muslims who live there,/ often poor and stressed by threats of violence./ We pray to the Lord.
At Christmas,/ we pray for the clarity,/ will and strength to love even our enemies./ That our hearts would be opened to the sufferings of others,/ that we would know how to pray with attention and true devotion./ We pray to the Lord.
Contemplating the face of the Child at Bethlehem,/ we pray to see that Holy Child in the faces of children all around the world:/ the children of forgotten poverty,/ unheeded desperation,/ lonely fear and pain./ We pray to the Lord.
At Christmas,/ we pray for our own families,/ mindful of any who are sick or troubled./ We pray for people who hate Christ and his followers./ For any who kill to dominate others in God's name./ We pray to the Lord.
Finally we pray for those who have died since last Christmas,/ among them many who died sad deaths,/ unknown and unloved./ We pray to the Lord.
