“Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you Good News of a great joy . . . This day is born the Savior,” that is, he who, as Son of God and Son of the Father, has traveled (in obedience to the Father) the path that leads away from the Father and into the darkness of the world. Behind him omnipotence and freedom; before, powerlessness, bonds and obedience. Behind him the comprehensive divine vision; before him the prospect of the meaninglessness of death on the Cross between two criminals, Behind him the bliss of life with the Father; before him, grievous solidarity with all who do not know the Father, do not want to know him and deny his existence. Rejoice then, for God himself has passed this way! The Son took with him the awareness of doing the Father’s will. He took with him the unceasing prayer that the Father’s will would be done on the dark earth as in the brightness of heaven. He took with him his rejoicing that the Father had hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to babes, to the simple and the poor. “I am the way,” and this way is “the truth” for you; along this way you will find “the life.” Along “the way” that I am you will learn to lose your life in order to find it; you will learn to grow beyond yourselves and your insincerity into a truth that is greater than you are. From a worldly point of view everything may seem very dark; your dedication may seem unproductive and a failure. But do not be afraid: you are on God’s path. “Let not your hearts be troubled: believe in God; believe also in me.” I am walking on ahead of you and blazing the trail of Christian love for you. It leads to your most inaccessible brother, the person most forsaken by God. But it is the path of divine love itself. You are on the right path. All who deny themselves in order to carry out love’s commission are on the right path.

Miracles happen along this path. Apparently insignificant miracles, noticed by hardly anyone. The very finding of a Child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger—is this not a miracle in itself? Then there is the miracle when a particular mission, hidden in a person’s heart, really reaches its goal, bringing God’s peace and joy where there were nothing but despair and resignation; when someone succeeds in striking a tiny light in the midst of an overpowering darkness. When joy irradiates a heart that no longer dared to believe in it. Now and again we ourselves are assured that the angel’s word we are trying to obey will bring us to the place where God’s Word and Son is already made man. We are assured that, in spite of all the noise and nonsense, today, December 25, is Christmas just as truly as two millennia ago. Once and for all God has started out on his journey toward us, and nothing, till the world’s end, will stop him from coming to us and abiding in us.

Read it all.

'Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you'
Isaiah 60: 1 pic.twitter.com/D6VppA25YR

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) January 2, 2025

These things have served their purpose: let them be.
So with your own, and pray they be forgiven
By others, as I pray you to forgive
Both bad and good. Last season’s fruit is eaten
And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.

–Little Gidding

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! pic.twitter.com/2EpnGAKGzp

— Catherine Munro (@CatherineMMunro) January 1, 2025

Emmanuel, God with us, who didst make thy home in every culture and community on earth: We offer thanks for the raising up of thy servant Samuel Azariah as the first indigenous bishop in India. Grant that we may be strengthened by his witness to thy love without concern for class or caste, and by his labors for the unity of the Church in India, that people of many languages and cultures might with one voice give thee glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

Today we remember Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah, like my father-in-law a native of Tamil Nadu. He was the first person of Indian descent to be ordained as a bishop in the Anglican church. He was also a tireless evangelist who often traveled around his diocese by bicycle. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/DoyVV00Ih9

— Amy Mantravadi (@AmyMantravadi) January 2, 2024

O Lord our God, who didst manifest thy love toward us by sending thine only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him : Grant us, by thy Holy Spirit, the precious gift of faith, whereby we may know that the Son of God has come; and help us to join our praises with the song of the heavenly host : Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.

A lovely and fresh sunrise over the Great Ouse in Ely this Thursday morning the 2nd of January 2025 🦢🧡🦢 #Sunrise #NewYear #LoveNature pic.twitter.com/KAwwDXVddM

— Veronica in the Fens 🧚🏼‍♀️ My Heart in Nature (@VeronicaJoPo) January 2, 2025

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sar’ai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

–Genesis 12:1-7

☃️☕🌞 Guten Morgen 🌞☕☃️ pic.twitter.com/DJvBzlKyHy

— Brigitta Neurauter (@BrigittaNeurau2) January 2, 2025

Almighty God, your blessed Son fulfilled the covenant of circumcision for our sake, and was given the Name that is above every name: Give us grace faithfully to bear his Name, and to worship him with pure hearts according to the New Covenant; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus

"He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow" – Phil 2, 8-10 pic.twitter.com/2OcnGE8EHk

— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) January 2, 2024

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose years never fail, and whose mercies are new each returning day: let the radiance of your Spirit renew our lives, warming our hearts and giving light to our minds; that we may pass the coming year in joyful obedience and firm faith; through him who is the beginning and the end, your son, Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you ,in the unity the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever amen.

#HappyNewYear2025 from Waterfront Park. #Charleston SC. @SheaGibsonWx @RobStormTeam2 @JedChristophWX @JimCantore @chswx @weatherchannel @WeatherNation @scwxpix @NWSCharlestonSC pic.twitter.com/neJKcHML72

— Ken Bowman (@kenbowmanphoto) January 1, 2025

From there:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Happy New Year from Tokyo 🎆 pic.twitter.com/TK4z3h6KV4

— Pictures (@piitures) December 31, 2021

so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are

Read it all.

Happy New Year from everyone at Durham Cathedral

We pray you have a blessed 2025

📷 shootingwithle pic.twitter.com/Oiazvy0ANz

— Durham Cathedral (@durhamcathedral) January 1, 2025

Eternal Lord
we give you thanks for bringing us through the changes of time to the beginning of another year
Forgive us the wrong we have done in the year that is past
and help us to spend the rest of our days
to your honour and glory
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

✨🍀✨ Happy New Year ✨🍀✨ pic.twitter.com/SStM4tB8NN

— 💫Stein_harmonie🍀🧚‍♀️ (@SteinHarmonie) January 1, 2025

1 Wisdom ascribe, and might and praise
To God, who lengthens out our days,
Who spares us yet another year,
And lets us see His goodness here;
Happy, and wise, the time redeem,
And live, my friends, and die to Him.

2 How often when His arm was bared,
Hath He our sinful Israel spared!
Let them alone, His mercy cried,
And turn’d the vengeful bolt aside,
Indulged another kind reprieve,
And strangely suffer’d us to live.

3 Laid to the root with conscious awe,
But now the threatening axe we saw,
We saw when Jesus stepp’d between,
To part the punishment and sin,
He pleaded for the blood-bought race,
And God vouchsafed a longer space!

4 Still in the doubtful balance weigh’d
We trembled, while the remnant pray’d:
The Father heard His Spirit groan,
And answer’d mild, It is My Son!
He let the prayer of faith prevail,
And mercy turn’d the hovering scale.

5 Merciful God, how shall we raise
Our hearts to pay Thee all Thy praise!
Our hearts shall beat for Thee alone,
Our lives shall make Thy goodness known,
Our souls and bodies shall be Thine,
A living sacrifice Divine.

6 I, and my house, will serve the Lord,
Led by the Spirit and the word;
We plight our faith, assembled here,
To serve our God the ensuing year;
And vow, when time shall be no more,
Through all eternity to adore.

–Charles Wesley as found in The Poetical Works Of John And Charles Wesley, Vol. VI,Ed. G. Osborn (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), pp. 9-10

Wishing you all a very happy new year 🥂take a pew and enjoy my North York Moors view 😊#HappyNewYear2025 pic.twitter.com/ukBLEtfLc7

— Nicky (@Nicky13Johnson) January 1, 2025

O almighty God, who hast given unto thy Son Jesus Christ the name which is above every name, and hast taught us that there is none other whereby we may be saved: Mercifully grant that as thy faithful people have comfort and peace in his name, so they may ever labour to publish it unto all nations; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Scottish Prayer Book

"Whenever you hear the Holy Name of Jesus pronounced, bow your head; do so likewise every time you say His Sacred Name." – St. Bernardine pic.twitter.com/Qp4avclr5K

— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) January 2, 2024

As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

–Colossians 2:6-7

" Jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne, der uns beschützt und der uns hilft, zu leben." (Hermann Hesse)
🍀🐞EIN GUTES NEUES JAHR 🐞🍀
🍀🐞HAPPY NEW YEAR🐞🍀 pic.twitter.com/gVoN3stWYW

— Brigitta Neurauter (@BrigittaNeurau2) January 1, 2025