Christmas Day - Reflection by Canon Leslie

On Christmas Day a core Gospel reading is the prologue to John’s Gospel, where John sets out the mystery of the incarnation: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’.  In this prologue the incarnate Word is described as ‘the light of all people’.  This light ‘shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’.  Then later in his Gospel John develops the theme of Jesus as the Light of the World. 


For those of you who wanted to do some thinking and preparation for today’s service during the preceding week, I invited reflection on the image of Christmas lights. In today’s picture from his book, Lights, Teddy Horsley dances to the colourful lights in the square.   






Lord Jesus Christ, 
you are the light of the world. 
Shine in our hearts 
and bring your light to our lives; 
now and always. 
Amen. 


We are continuing to explore the Christmas day theme on the First Sunday of Christmas. Then on the Second Sunday of Christmas we anticipate the Feast of the Epiphany, when Matthew completes the Christmas story with the narrative of the magi, visiting from the East. The image to prepare for the visit of the magi is Christmas gifts. You can find out more about that theme here https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. We would really appreciate you letting us know how you are using these materials.