The saintly pontiff prayed, “May the radiance of your birth light up the night of the world.”
The Advent and Christmas seasons provide a special time of the year to humble ourselves in front of the Child Jesus. There exist many different prayers that reflect this holy humility and invoke the Child Jesus’ intercession.
One of those is written by St. John Paul II, delivered during a homily for Midnight Mass. It is a beautiful prayer, one that reflects the many spiritual dimensions of Christmas and can help us enter into a deeper experience of the celebration.
O Child, who willed to have for your crib a manger; O Creator of the universe, who stripped yourself of divine glory; O Redeemer, who offered your vulnerable body in sacrifice for the salvation of humanity!
May the radiance of your birth light up the night of the world. May the power of your message of love thwart the proud snares of the evil one. May the gift of your life make us understand ever more clearly the worth of the life of each human being.
Too much blood is still being shed on the earth! Too much violence and too many conflicts trouble the peaceful coexistence of nations!
You come to bring us peace. You are our peace! You alone can make of us “a people purified” and belonging to you for ever, a people “zealous for good deeds” (Tit 2:14).
For to us a Child is born, to us a son is given! What an unfathomable mystery is hidden in the humility of this Child! We would like to touch him; we would like to embrace him.
You, Mary, who keep watch over your all-powerful Son, grant us your eyes to contemplate him with faith; grant us your heart to worship him with love.
In his simplicity, the Child of Bethlehem teaches us to rediscover the real meaning of our existence; he teaches us “to live sober, upright and godly lives in this world” (Tit 2:12).
O Holy Night, so long awaited, which has united God and man for ever! You rekindle our hope. You fill us with ecstatic wonder. You assure us of the triumph of love over hatred, of life over death.
For this reason we remain absorbed in prayer.
In the luminous silence of your Nativity, you, Emmanuel, continue to speak to us. And we are ready to listen to you. Amen!
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