A Great Thanksgiving for Christmas Eve, by Marjorie Procter-Smith

A Great Thanksgiving for Christmas Eve

May God be with you.
AND ALSO WITH YOU.
Lift up your hearts.
WE LIFT THEM TO OUR GOD.
Let us give thanks to the Holy One.
IT IS RIGHT TO GIVE OUR THANKS AND PRAISE.

We thank you, Holy One,
for you are the creator of darkness and light,
dwelling in silence and known in thunder,
mighty in power and come among us as a helpless infant.

To announce your coming you sent your messengers
to a peasant girl,
to shepherds with their flocks,
to the poor and the homeless.

Therefore, joining our voices with the morning stars
who sang at creation
and the angels and archangels,
and all the beasts of the land,
we sing:

HOLY HOLY HOLY
GOD OF BLESSING AND GIVER OF LIFE
EARTH SEA AND SKY ARE FULL OF YOUR GLORY
BLESSINGS IN THE HIGHEST!
BLESSED ARE ALL WHO COME IN YOUR NAME.
BLESSINGS IN THE HIGHEST.

Holy are you, and blessed is your child Jesus Christ,
whose birth we remember this night,
and whose coming again
in justice and peace we await.

On the night before he was betrayed to death,
Jesus sat at supper with his friends.
He took bread, gave you thanks for it,
broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
“Take and eat. This is for you.
Do this in memory of me.”

And after supper he took the cup,
gave you thanks,
and gave it to them, saying,
“Take and drink from this, all of you.
This is the new covenant for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this in memory of me.”

Remembering, therefore, his birth and his life,
his suffering and death,
his resurrection and ascencion,
we offer these gifts of the earth and of human labor:
this bread,
this wine,
ourselves.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us
and on these gifts of bread and wine
that they may be for us
the living presence of Christ.
May we live in his presence
until the final fulfillment of all things
when all creation will once again
sing and dance for joy.

Through your child Jesus Christ,
in the power of the Holy Spirit,
all honor and glory is yours, Holy One,
now and forever.

AMEN.

From “The Church In Her House: A Feminist Emancipatory Prayer Book for Christian Communities,” Pilgrim Press, c2008 Marjorie Procter-Smith. Permission given for one-time use, provided publication credit is given.