Holy Center of this most holy season,

Jesus, child and ruler,

all our stars point to your birth;

all our wanderings come home to you;

all our griefs and delights find a place in the stable

where you choose to transform

poverty and pain and loneliness and rejection.

Your light shines in our lives;

your peace embraces our anger, sorrow, and loss;

your life opens us to new discovery of our most intimate selves

and of our neighbors,

however we may find them —

poor as shepherd,

as foreign as magi,

as thoughtless as innkeepers,

as helpless as infants.

In your humble birth

we discover your everlasting majesty and grace.

We welcome you and offer you our thanks and praise,

in your glorious name.

Amen.

~From Touch Holiness, Ruth C. Duck and Maren C. Tirabassi, eds.