The following charge and benediction is especially appropriate to offer during the Advent and Christmas seasons.
May you be so filled with the light of Christ
that you light up your corner of the world with truth and love.
May you love God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength.
May the Holy Spirit so fill you that you love one another
—and the stranger who appears at your doors, at your border—
as you have been loved by Jesus.
May your doors be open to all:
the hungry, the poor, the bored, the lonely,
those weighted down with worries
about the money they have or the money they lack,
the young, the old, and the in-between,
those you know and those you don’t,
those you love and those you can’t stand.
And may you make room for the Christ Child,
born in a world that is too dark,
too cold, too angry, and has too many locked doors.
May you make room for the Christ who comes at Christmas,
and may you live for the Christ who is risen.
