Flash Stories & Poetry Day 47: Prayer "A Christmas Prayer"

 

 

Hey, everyone.

So, as I've mentioned before, I prepare these in advance, especially this week and especially for this one. I had wanted to do a Christmas prayer, but only if it turned up in the spinning of the wheel, and it did, so... Today's style is... Prayer. But more than that though, it's a Christmas prayer. Not just simply for the sake of the season, but because there was a Christmas prayer I read not that long ago that I quite liked. I came across it from either Beliefnet or someone else I'm subscribed to. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it since, but I do remember being blown away by how surprisingly good it was. All the rest are sort of chintzy or mundane or predictable like. So, here's my version of a Christmas prayer. Just know, it was inspired by key lines from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. And when I say "inspired," I mean I stole them and remade them for my purposes.

Almighty God,

As the season of Thy Son falls upon us,
let us remember the spirit and purpose
of this feast:

Let us not fetter ourselves in chains,
girded by our own free will
remaining captive, bound, and double-
ironed by evanescent pursuits.

Let us not misuse our life's opportunity,
but find the vast means of our
usefulness as Christian spirits
working at Thy business of charity,
mercy, forbearance, and benevolence.

And by Thy strength and grace,
may we be better than our word
doing it all and infinitely more,
able to keep Christmas well
the whole year round. May we
be as good a people as the world
could ever know.

Amen.

***

 

Well, it's not perfect, but it's pretty good. I don't want to use the word "people" because it seems to too generic and not purpose-built enough, but most other words that I could find that might have worked, church, parish, nation, kingdom, halidom, they all seemed too specific or didn't fit the rhythm of the prayer right. Not to mention, with the mention of "Christian spirits" earlier in the prayer, it doesn't feel like "people" needs to be anymore specific than it is because "Christian spirits" pretty much answers what sort of people we should be.

 

But anyway, that's it for today. If you have the time, please check out my books for sale on Amazon which you can find through my author page. The link is below. Also, I reworked my Patreon page, so why not give it a look and consider becoming my patron. For little as a buck from everyone who reads this, I can keep writing without needing a "real job."

Keep writing, my friends.

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