Prayers for Peace During the Hectic Holiday Season
Is your inner-peace in short supply during the holidays? Is your stress level on tilt? Does it seem like everyone wants a little piece of you? Are you tempted to go on strike until after the holidays? Not that you’d do anything that drastic…
For therapy that works, take it to God in prayer. Peace is one of God’s promises. What better time to claim his peace than during the hectic holidays?
Pre-emptive Prayers for Holidays
The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace. – Psalm 29:11
The hustle-bustle associated with holidays begins “Black Friday” (day after Thanksgiving) and typically, doesn’t ease-up until January 2. Consider noting a start date on your calendar to begin pre-emptive prayers.
Don’t consider this a punitive
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Pray for the at-home family’s resilience and patience while they wait for the deployed to return safely. Pray for peace on earth, so that all our military members may return home and rest in the arms of God.
Twilight Prayers
At twilight time, whether dusk or dawn, the world, bathed in a golden light, seems a little softer and a lot more peaceful. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, you may have been operating on the grope-and-hope method. You’re likely exhausted. So, claim Christmas Day (dawn) twilight as your sacred time with God.
Ask God to help you remember to breathe, when the day gets chaotic. When your home environment is like a battlefield, deep breathing helps center you and restores inner-peace.
This day too will end. Find joy in the good stuff and just soldier through the bad stuff (like when Uncle Al drinks too much and gets disruptive).
Before the big meal, remind your guests and family of the Reason for the Season. Hold hands as the table is blessed. Bless the hands that prepared the food. Thank God for your many blessings.
Final
The Gift of Peace. New York: Doubleday, 1998. · Conbeg, Matthew. Books of Catholic Customs. New England: Servant Publication, 1995.
for your sake, and the Day's, not for his. Long life to him! A merry
Of all religious holidays that have been adopted by secularists, one of the most popular would be Christmas, originally meant to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. With the exact date of Jesus' birth unknown during ancient times, Christmas was initially assigned to January 6th, but was changed to December 25th under the influence of the winter solstice (Nothaft 903). Peculiarly however, is the universal celebration of Christmas al...
Black Friday was a day set forth initially to help the economy rise back up. Around this time of the
In order to be specific in prayers for the fighting forces, education in what a soldier lives through and thinks is a necessity. The following is what a normal day could be like in a Forward Operating Base outside of Baghdad:
Thank you to all of our amazing family and friends for everything you have done. Words aren’t enough to express our love and gratitude we have for you.
The cornerstone of any relationship with someone is the ideal of grace and mercy. When grace is absent, dealing with people becomes difficult we develop issues with trust. Grace involves hoping that God is listening and will answer all prayers in ways according to His will. Digging into the cross of hope and prayer, this paper discusses the theological definition, biblical foundation, and practical application in order to identify how the two connect. These principles have helped me learn what it means to be a Christian.
Imagine the peace if everyone allowed themselves to feel gratitude for everything and allowed their hearts to be warmed by the day to day.
..., your family and your shoulder to cry on. I wanted to tell you that there are hundreds on hundreds of people praying for you’re right now as you’re on this retreat! I will always be here for you no matter what. Make sure you enjoy this retreat; it is such an amazing time that will only happen once. I hope you get everything out of this that you would have wanted to happen! Breathe. There is still more to come so don’t just think that it’s going to be over after this. Live this retreat out to its fullest. The little things in life mean the most; they are the most cherishable. Living the fourth has taught me to live with purpose, to say the courageous thing, to celebrate the simple gift and to always keep my head up high and follow my dreams. Let go and let God. Remember LIVE THE FOURTH!
May your laugh, your love and your wine be plenty, thus your happiness will be nothing less.
Christmas used to be a time when families gathered and love enclosed each member. Meals and stories were shared and times were simpler. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Mass were special times for families to sit back in a pew and remember the true meaning of Christmas as carols were sung in the high choirs. This serenity and peace seems to be a thing of the past. Now, people are drowning in the pressure that Christmas is all about presents, and that unwrapping gifts on Christmas morning is what this joyous occasion is centered around. Another misconceived thought is that Christmas has to be bought and given away in order to have a good time. In 2010, a stunning “4.8 million people [found] time on Christmas Day to go online and shop.” On the contrary, only “4.5 million people who attend an Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist or Pentecostal church,” was present in church on Christmas Day. The thought that shopping is more important than the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ is appalling to Christians throughout the world.
In fact, they have fun on the day because they love the atmosphere through Christmas songs and illuminations. Christmas is thought by many people to be the most wonderful time of the year. Winter snow, Christmas tree, decorations and Santa Claus are very important things which makes us happy and think that it is the most beautiful day of all the year. Everybody waits for the day because it has various meanings for different people. Moreover, they can see beautiful illuminations and listen to Christmas songs in cities or downtown. However, some adults who are parents need to spend money for buying many gifts for children. In the United States, parents generally purchase the gifts on a Black Friday. It is good for them to get their presents on the day because they more discounts on that day than other
Paul highlights this in Philippians 4:5-7: “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
that you should only pray to God if you truly believe in him and his
Everyone has a Christmas Eve routine. Christmas Eve starts with getting ready for mass. My family is Catholic, so Christmas Eve mass is always long. Christmas Eve mass starts at around 6 o’clock, and usually gets over at around 8 o’clock. It is usually close to two hours long, but we do not mind because Christmas reminds us why we attend. I love Christmas Eve mass because of the music the choir sings. They remind me of the angels that would be singing around the manager of Jesus after he was born on Christmas Eve hundreds of years ago. The music is soothing, and makes a person realize how beautiful celebrating Christmas is. After church, my family heads back to