{"id":4020,"date":"2011-12-23T09:30:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T16:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=4020"},"modified":"2011-12-23T19:29:12","modified_gmt":"2011-12-24T02:29:12","slug":"a-christmas-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=4020","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4021\" style=\"width: 488px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Madonna-of-the-Rose-Bush-5x6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4021\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4021\" title=\"Madonna of the Rose Bush 5x6\" src=\"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Madonna-of-the-Rose-Bush-5x6-805x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"478\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4021\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Virgin of the Rose Bower - Stefan Lochner<\/p><\/div>\n<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Gracious, loving and merciful God, on this Christmas Eve, as the light of your Word penetrates our hearts, as we are reminded of the gift of life and faith, as the glories of the heavenly hosts are echoed in our midst, we open ourselves up to your Spirit and give you thanks. We are grateful, Lord Jesus, that your story has become our story, and we celebrate your birth. <\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Continue, we pray, to instill in us a profound sense of your abiding presence, and help us to take to heart the wonder of your love, that we may walk in your ways and delight in your will. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Help us, oh God, to be the faithful, gracious, loving, giving and forgiving people you would have us be. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Isaiah 40:11 <strong>He shall feed his flock<\/strong> like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.\u00a0 <strong>Leontyne Price\u00a0 Click on picture<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4032\" style=\"width: 249px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=t_22uWi5ajE&amp;feature=related\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4032\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4032\" title=\"George Frideric Handel by Balthasa Denner\" src=\"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/George-Frideric-Handel-by-Balthasa-Denner-239x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/George-Frideric-Handel-by-Balthasa-Denner-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/George-Frideric-Handel-by-Balthasa-Denner.jpg 346w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4032\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Friderik Handel by Balthasar Denner<\/p><\/div>\n<p align=\"center\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gracious, loving and merciful God, on this Christmas Eve, as the light of your Word penetrates our hearts, as we are reminded of the gift of life and faith, as the glories of the heavenly hosts are echoed in our midst, we open ourselves up to your Spirit and give you thanks. We are grateful, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[352,353],"class_list":["post-4020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-uncategorized","tag-a-christmas-prayer","tag-devotional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4020"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4025,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020\/revisions\/4025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}