December 24, 2021 - A Christmas Prayer

A Christmas Prayer

December 24, 2021

It is Christmas Eve and, for the second consecutive year, we will celebrate Christmas Day in the shadow of a global pandemic. The Jerusalem Post has reported there were no lines today to enter the Grotto of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where a silver star marks the place where Jesus is believed to have been born.

Here in Alabama, 2,466 new cases were reported this morning, more than 2.5 times the number of cases (908) recorded last Friday. Hospitalizations are up 17% over the last week (4.64 patients per reporting hospital).

Louise and I will attend Christmas Eve services virtually. This morning, we listened to a live BBC broadcast of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England. The service was conceived by the Rev. Eric Milner-White, a former British Army chaplain, during his first year as the dean of King’s College. The initial Festival service took place on Christmas Eve 1918, in the midst of the flu pandemic and only one month after the Armistice which ended World War I. It has been broadcast by BBC every year since 1931, even during the Second World War, when the chapel’s ancient stained glass had to be temporarily removed and stored in the cellar of nearby St. Catharine’s College.

The Christmas season is a reminder of birth and renewal, anticipation and hope. It is also a time to remember those we lost who remain a part of us. The opening prayer of the Festival service must have resonated with so many in attendance who lost loved ones to war and disease a century ago. The words of that prayer are equally poignant today: “Lastly, let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no man can number”.

Louise joins me in wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a safe and healthy New Year.