Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the beauty of the Holiday Season, for the love and support of family, for the opportunity to reach out to the “least of these,” to live as you would have us, loving our neighbor as you have loved us, understanding that all we have we owe to You, for we come into this world with nothing, and that is also how we will all surely leave.

Keep us safe from the snares and pitfalls of our own inflated egos, which trap us in endless cycles of false hope and self-importance, filling us with grandiose thoughts of our own greatness, or desperate feelings of worthlessness and despair. Fill us, instead, with Your mighty Light, the Light of the World, whom You lovingly gave to us that we might live in Your presence, might recognize Your awesome grace, might know Your love, Your joy, Your peace.  Amen

~SLM