Please join me in a spirit of prayer or meditation as you are moved.

Blessed and holy night,
silent night, full of truths too awesome to bend into words,
we sit in the glow of ages,
wound round stories that teach us some of what it means to be human,
and some of what it means to see God.

The meditations of our hearts,
and prayers of our souls,
speak our independent needs, loves and yearnings -
...may they collect, for a moment, in this our common experience,
as we direct them together, in a spirit of petition.

We seek the patience to peer long enough,
in the eyes of our brothers and sisters,
that we too may see them as children,
of loving mothers and fathers,
children of divinity itself.

We seek the wisdom to pause long enough,
before making judgments
that separate us from one another,
that separate us from our very souls.

We seek, the strength to hold the lives
that are placed in our own care,
not to protect them from every trial,
...no arms are that strong,
but to hold them in the light, as long as the light is available.

We seek the still small call to compassion,
that cannot be silenced by greed, fear, or anger,
that roots so deeply in our humanity,
that it will out, should we pause long enough to listen.

For all of these we give of ourselves, in prayer or meditation,
not to end with an amen, but so we might find the means
to make our yearnings manifest in our world,
by the work of our hands, and the proclamation of our hearts.

Amen, and may it be so.