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UU Faith Works Summer/Fall 2003 Administration
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Some Words for Christmas Worship
Collected by Jacqui James
Co-editor, UU Faith Works
Boston, MA
God of love and hope
We stand unshielded, as shepherds in the night.
Surrounded by dark hillsides, alert to all who might need us,
Aware of the pitfalls that our patient watchfulness prevents.
We would be dazzled anew by your presence in our lives.
We would remember the Christmas story
When we travel through dark spaces in our own lives;
Remembering that even the shepherds, those hilltop guardians of the weak,
Were comforted by companions who traveled with them towards beckoning promise.
May we commit ourselves to journey together through the night,
Moving with courage, faith, love, and eager openness to all we will encounter.
May our ability to be a companion in the darkness increase as we allow others to be companions to us.
For in the trust of this supportive wholeness, we both express—and know—your love. Amen.
Lucinda Steven Duncan
Beatitudes of Christmastide
On this blessed day let us worship at the altar of joy, for to miss
the joy of Christmas is to miss its holiest secret.
Let us enter into the spiritual delights which are the natural
heritage of child-like hearts.
Let us withdraw from the cold and barren world of prosaic fact if only
for a season.
That we may warm ourselves by the fireside of fancy, and
take counsel of the wisdom of poetry and legend.
Blessed are they who have vision enough to behold a guiding star in
the dark mystery which girdles the earth.
Blessed are they who have imagination enough to detect
the music of celestial voices in the midnight hours of life;
Blessed are they who have faith enough to contemplate a world of
peace and justice in the midst of present wrongs and strife.
Blessed are they who have greatness enough to become at
times as a little child;
Blessed are they who have zest enough to take delight in simple things;
Blessed are they who have wisdom enough to know that
the kingdom of heaven is very close at hand, and that all
may enter who have eyes to see and ears to hear and
hearts to understand.
David Rhys Williams
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