A Prayer for Christmas

Christmas at YMCA St Paul’s Group

Christmas is a busy and exciting time at YMCA St Paul’s Group. It is also a time when we are reminded of the Christian foundation story that informs our ethos, values and work.

Advent: A Season of Waiting and Hope

The countdown to Christmas is the Christian season of Advent. The word “advent” simply means “coming,” and this season invites us, both individually and collectively, to create space for hope to grow as we look forward to the light of Christmas. Whilst children often mark the countdown to Christmas with chocolate calendars, many churches embrace the tradition of the Advent wreath as a focal point for anticipation and reflection.

The Origins of the Advent Wreath

The tradition of the Advent wreath finds its origins in northern Germany in the 19th century. Johann Hinrich Wichern, a Protestant theologian, managed the “Rauhe Haus” in Hamburg, a home for children and young people without parents. Christmas held special significance in the orphanage, and the children would ask Pastor Wichern daily, “When is Christmas?” To help his young charges visualise the wait and make it easier, Wichern created the world’s first Advent wreath in 1839. Unlike the wreaths we know today, his design used a wooden carriage wheel adorned with candles, four large white candles for the Sundays of Advent and 19 smaller red candles for the weekdays. Suspended from the prayer room ceiling, a new candle was lit each day, helping the children both count down the days and anticipate the joy of Christmas Eve.

Light, Values and Community

Each large ’Sunday’ candle on the Advent wreath carries a rich symbolism representing hope, love, joy, and peace, qualities that shine brighter as Christmas approaches. At YMCA St Paul’s Group, these themes are closely mirrored by our own core values: Loving, Hopeful, Community Focused, Person Centred and Holistic. Just as each candle brings more light into the darkness, each of our values adds warmth, purpose, and guidance to the communities we serve.

A Christmas Message from YMCA St Paul’s Group

As a YMCA, our prayer for all our staff, residents, customers and partners is that as you work your way through the days to Christmas, against a turbulent political and economic backdrop, we as a YMCA, pray that this season you will find hope, that you will both feel loved and be able to show love, that you will find in the Christmas story both the Joy and Peace that the birth of Jesus represents.

A Prayer for Christmas

God who rejoices over us when we’re singing about Jesus birth,

We thank you Lord for all good things you give us.

From the Christmas Story we remember Mary singing that you have fed the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.

So we pray for those who cannot sing, because all their energy is going into finding where the next meal is coming from and we pray for those who have consumed too much so nothing comes as a joy or a surprise anymore.

Lord bring your just economy.

We pray for those who are despairing and grieving. The jollities of the season don’t touch them, but yet there is hope, in the coming of the Christ Child that newness comes out of something hard.

Lord, we pray for those who go out of their way to help people in despair at this time. Lord, we thank you for pin-pricks of light that shine through again and again…..giving hope.

From the Christmas Story we remember the angels in the night sky singing “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth Peace!

So we pray.. for those whose homeland is at war….where the bombs are louder than any Christmas Music.

We pray for those under oppression where they cannot express their identity. Bring a Peace that’s based on a shared humanity…..Peace in our World, our Nation……our homes.

In the Christmas Story we remember the shepherds glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard. We pray that Christmas doesn’t become one long ‘to-do’ list for us. And we ask that we glimpse something that makes us sing…and knowing you Lord, not something that’s showy but something small and wonderful…..like a new-born in a manger.

God of song who hears the song of our hearts hear our prayers today we ask in Your Holy Name
Amen