Morning Devotion for the Season of Christmas

January 1, 2024

Invitatory

Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith. 1 Peter 5:8-9a

Glory to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Reading: Collect from Compline

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.

The Diné Gathering Prayer:

Creator, we give you thanks for all you are, and all you bring to us for our visit within your creation. In Jesus, you place the Gospel in the center of this sacred circle through which all of creation is related.

You show us the way to live a generous and compassionate life. Give us your strength to live together with respect and commitment as we grow in your Spirit, for you are God, now and forever. Amen.

Meditation-Rebecca Northington

For many, January 1st marks the beginning of a new year, a new era, and a new self. We make new year's resolutions to be healthier, exercise more, meditate or pray, drink

less, eat better, spend intentionally, and/or declutter our lives, prioritizing the important things and shedding the things, habits and sometimes even people, who bring us down. We try to take care of ourselves and our communities in ways that enhance us all.

In this way the placement of Christmas and the Christmas season in the secular calendar is not un-fitting. For the Church, the new calendar year starts with Advent, and all that the birth of Jesus represents in terms of new life and a new world order. We begin this journey with God’s only begotten son as a baby, innocent in his birth on December 25th, and we follow the story of his life and death each church year and try to grow in our own understanding of the impact of his life, death and resurrection on our lives and our worlds.

As we move through this Christmastide, in particular New Years Eve into the New Year, I am reminded of the Compline collect found above. This simple service of evening prayer so beautifully captures the feeling of a long winter's night and the hope for God’s love and protection. It also reminds us that as intentional and alert as we may be, it is only through God and God’s love that all things are possible. The theme for RYG this year has been surrender, and this prayer reorients us to just the kind of surrender true faith requires.

The Dinè Gathering prayer also acknowledges God’s omnipresence and omnipotence. While the Compline collect asks for protection for the long night, the Gathering prayer asks for God to “show us the way to live a generous and compassionate life…the strength to live together with respect and commitment as we grow“ in God’s Spirit, now and forever.

Ultimately these two prayers ask for safeguarding and guidance, acknowledging that while we can turn to and serve the Lord, we cannot do these things alone. We cannot be our best selves, for ourselves and others without also recognizing God’s role in the activity of our actions. So as you make your New Year's resolutions today and begin to clean out the chaos in your life, be aware of the role that faith plays, and consider how you can better place God at the center, in effect surrendering to that power beyond your own.

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.