Marist Association Daily Prayer

Let us always remember that

we are in the holy presence of God

May God continue to live in our hearts

In the name of the Father,

Son and Holy Spirit

Amen

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN
  • Intention of the Day
  • Today's Gospel
  • Breaking Open the Word
  • Marist Source
  • Reflection
  • Meditation
  • Call to Action
  • Closing Prayer

Intention of the Day

Thanksgiving for the Incarnation. Wishing you a blessed and holy Christmas.
For all those who are alone on this day.

Thanksgiving for the Incarnation. Wishing you a blessed and holy Christmas.
For all those who are alone on this day.

Today's Gospel. Christmas Day.

In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.

John 1: 1.
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John 1: 1 - 18

1 In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.

2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him.

4 What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men;

5 and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it.

6 A man came, sent by God. His name was John.

7 He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him.

8 He was not the light, he was to bear witness to the light.

9 The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognise him.

11 He came to his own and his own people did not accept him.

12 But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name

13 who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God himself.

14 The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 John witnesses to him. He proclaims: 'This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed ahead of me because he existed before me.'

16 Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received -- one gift replacing another,

17 for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

18 No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

Breaking Open The Word

At his command, the world came into being, and when he decreed, “Let there be human beings,” human beings were created.

Taken from: Give Us This Day
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Taken from: Give Us This Day

The Word Leaped Down.

While everything was hushed and still, and night was halfway through its course, your almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from your royal throne in the heavens [Wis 18:14-15]. In this text of Scripture, the most sacred moment of all time is made known to us, the moment when God’s almighty Word would leave his Father’s tender embrace and come down into his mother’s womb to bring us his message of salvation.

And see how truly almighty was that Word! Neither heaven nor anything under the heavens as yet had any existence; he spoke, and they came into being. The almighty power of the Word created substance and shape simultaneously. At his command, the world came into being, and when he decreed, “Let there be human beings,” human beings were created.

The Word of God did not shrink from entering into a personal union with poor lost humanity. A newborn babe in swaddling bands, he lay in a manger, since the Creator of the world could find no room in the inn.

And so there came a deep silence. Everything was still. The voices of prophets and apostles were hushed, since the prophets had already delivered their message, while the time for the apostles’ preaching had yet to come. Between these two proclamations a period of silence intervened, and in the midst of this silence the Father’s almighty Word leaped down from his royal throne. There is a beautiful fitness here: in the intervening silence the Mediator between God and the human race also intervened, coming as a human being to human beings, as a mortal to mortals, to save the dead from death.

Julian of Vézelay, adapted from Sermon 1 on the Nativity. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Julian of Vézelay (ca. 1080–1165) was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Vézelay in Burgundy.

Thanksgiving for the Incarnation. Wishing you a blessed and holy Christmas.
For all those who are alone on this day.

Marist Source

At the crib we find the innocence, simplicity, gentleness and even weakness of God.

# WFR 21.

Thanksgiving for the Incarnation. Wishing you a blessed and holy Christmas.
For all those who are alone on this day.

To Ponder

‘The Word of God became flesh…’ – Can I perceive the sacredness of all matter? What does it say about God that God insisted on ‘enfleshment’.

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Where has the Spirit drawn you in today's prayer?

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Closing Prayer

All Loving God

Cultivate in us a spirituality that flows out of Marian simplicity, humility and modesty.

Release in us wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement for your work in which we share.

Help us set our gaze on those people and places most in need of Christlife,

Impel us to respond together,

And lead us to be in communion with one another, and with you.

Like Mary, we listen for your invitation,

Like Mary, we set out joyfully and in haste to the hill country of the lives of young people,

Like Mary, we build communities in ways that are Christ-centred.

All Loving God, come and live in our hearts.

 

 Amen