O God, who hast given us grace at this time to celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ: We laud and magnify thy glorious name for the countless blessings which he hath brought unto us; and we beseech thee to grant that we may ever set forth thy praise in joyful obedience to thy will; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Icy Lanes. -2°C with snow showers. Deer on the hills. pic.twitter.com/ui55i8soKg

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) January 5, 2026

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Laz′arus, come out.” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

–John 11:38-44

A winter walk in the park – have a wonderful new week, friends #ScotlandisNow #StormHour #photography #photooftheday #landscape #OutAndAboutScotland #landscapephotography @VisitScotland @ScotsMagazine #STVSnaps #ThePhotoHour #sunset pic.twitter.com/gn9LpzUZZV

— Mike Wood (@MikeMikwd) January 4, 2026

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

The wolf supermoon over Argyle Street in the west of Glasgow.#glasgow #supermoon #wolfmoon #argylestreet #glasgowtoday pic.twitter.com/n8bEQJIwcH

— This Is My Glasgow (@is_glasgow) January 4, 2026

The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

–John 6:41-47

Island on the lake. Platt Fields Park, Manchester pic.twitter.com/lNa3iuvPue

— Andrew Brooks (@AndrewPBrooks) January 4, 2026

Compassionate God, who hast raised up ministers among thy people: May we ever desire, like thy servant William Passavant, to support the work of equipping the saints for service among the sick and the friendless; through Jesus Christ the divine Physician, who hast prepared for us an eternal home, and who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Died #OTD in 1894: William Passavant, a Lutheran minister who is commemorated as a Prophetic Witness by the Episcopal Church
Passavant brought the Lutheran Deaconess movement to the United States & was a pioneer in social services among American Lutheranshttps://t.co/ODb93djrKy pic.twitter.com/AGuz56WQoC

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) January 3, 2024

Most merciful God, for whose chosen handmaid and her Holy Babe there was no room in the inn at Bethlehem: Help us all by thy Spirit to make room for the Christ in our common days, that his peace and joy may fill our hearts, and his love flow through our lives to the blessing of others; for his name’s sake.

—Prayers for the Christian Year (SCM, 1964)

Time we spent pic.twitter.com/1ifkDdFikm

— Paul Willson (@pauljwillson) January 3, 2026

Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness. You did not so learn Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

–Ephesians 4:17-32

Guten Morgen mit einer kleinen Winterimpression, heute aus Salzburg.#Österreich pic.twitter.com/ESpOu0H17N

— Thomas Stiegler (@StieglerThomas) January 3, 2026

“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.

Some photos I took on a misty evening in Elburg , The Netherlands last week with some Christmas decorations. pic.twitter.com/0L5KINpi9Z

— Albert Dros (@albertdrosphoto) January 1, 2026

(A new carol written for the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge in 2012)

Lyrics:

Deep in the cold of winter,
Darkness and silence were everywhere;
Softly and clearly, there came through the stillness

a wonderful sound to hear:
All bells in paradise I heard them ring,
Sounding in majesty the news that they bring;
All bells in paradise I heard them ring,
Welcoming our Saviour, born on earth a heavenly King.
All bells in paradise I heard them ring:
‘Glory to God on high’ the angel voices sing.

Lost in awe and wonder,
Doubting I asked what this sign might be:
Christ our Messiah revealed in a stable,
A marvellous sight to see.
All bells in paradise I heard them ring,
Sounding in majesty the news that they bring;
All bells in paradise I heard them ring,
Welcoming our Saviour, born on earth a heavenly King.

He comes down in peace, a child in humility,
The keys to his kingdom belong to the poor;
Before him shall kneel the kings with their treasures,
gold incense and myrrh.
All bells in paradise I heard them ring,
Sounding in majesty the news that they bring;
All bells in paradise I heard them ring,
Welcoming our Saviour, born on earth a heavenly King.
All bells in paradise I heard them ring:
‘Glory to God on high’ the angel voices sweetly sing.

Enjoy it all.

This mediator must represent God to humankind, and humankind to God. He must have points of contact with both God and humanity, and yet be distinguishable from them both. The central Christian idea of the incarnation, which expresses the belief that Jesus is both God and man, divine and human, portrays Jesus as the perfect mediator between God and human beings. He, and he alone, is able to redeem us and reconcile us to God.

—“I Believe”: Exploring the Apostles’ Creed (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998), p. 48

Giorgione’s ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ (1505/1510) pic.twitter.com/xDtoi805WA

— jacob eigengain (@jacobeigengain) January 7, 2024

His solution consisted, first, in experiencing them. The god-man suffers too, with patience. Evil and death can no longer be entirely imputed to him since he suffers and dies. The night on Golgotha is so important in the history of man only because, in its shadows, the divinity, ostensibly abandoning its traditional privileges, lived through to the end, despair included, the agony of death. Thus is explained the Lama sabachthani and the frightful doubt of Christ in agony.

–Albert Camus, Essais [Paris: Gallimard, 1965], E.T. p. 144, quoted by yours truly in the Sunday sermon

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."
– Charles Dickens pic.twitter.com/a2h1Djta2C

— gregorio catarino (@gregcatarino1) December 21, 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.

Azariah was passionate about breaking down barriers between people. He saw the Hindu caste system as oppressive and made a point of reacting out to Dalits (“Untouchables”). He was also passionate about education and founded schools for boys and girls. pic.twitter.com/o4BWyzUnvQ

— Amy Mantravadi (@AmyMantravadi) January 2, 2024

O God our Father, who by the glorious birth of thy Son didst enlighten the darkness of the world: We pray that the light of his presence may shine more and more in the lives of men; that being filled with his spirit of goodwill, the nations may inherit that gift of peace which he came to bring. We ask in his name.

Merry Christmas Eve

(Christmas Eve, 1878, by J. Hoover & Son) pic.twitter.com/6yzRV4SKvv

— Vicente Fox Mulder (@WASPmexicano) December 24, 2024

Ahab told Jez′ebel all that Eli′jah had done, and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jez′ebel sent a messenger to Eli′jah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.” And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

–1 Kings 19:1-8

Morning everyone I hope you are well. Dawn breaking over a very frosty Elterwater. Have a great day.#LakeDistrict pic.twitter.com/v31iNM8cgV

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) January 2, 2026

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.

Chicago ushers in 2026 with a BANG! Last night at midnight along the Chicago River. #chicago #NewYear2026 #news pic.twitter.com/OvoeJueXMq

— Barry Butler Photography (@barrybutler9) January 1, 2026

“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.’”

–Minnie Haskins (1875-1957)

Happy New Year everyone. A glimmer of light on the horizon started the year off for me and plenty of others who gathered on Glastonbury Tor to see the first sunrise of 2026. pic.twitter.com/LlZOZtmGW3

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) January 1, 2026

Almighty God,
whose blessed Son was circumcised
in obedience to the law for our sake
and given the Name that is above every name:
give us grace faithfully to bear his Name,
to worship him in the freedom of the Spirit,
and to proclaim him as the Saviour of the world;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

'Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.'
Psalm 30:4 pic.twitter.com/vIDHt3yqpj

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) December 23, 2025

‘Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: and from age even unto age Thou art’ (v. 2). Thou therefore who art for ever, and before we were, and before the world was, hast become our refuge ever since we turned to Thee. … But he very rightly does not say, Thou wast from ages, and unto ages Thou shalt be: but puts the verb in the present, intimating that the substance of God is altogether immutable. It is not, He was, and Shall be, but only Is. Whence the expression, I Am that I Am; and, I Am ‘hath sent me unto you;’ (Exod. iii. 14.) and, ‘Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.’ (Ps. cii. 26, 27.) Behold then the eternity that is our refuge, that we may fly thither from the mutability of time, there to remain for evermore.

–Saint Augustine, from his Exposition on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XC

Morning everyone I hope you are well. I wish you all a Happy New Year from Ambleside. Have a great day (and year).#lakedistrict pic.twitter.com/SME2aHkSIo

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) January 1, 2026

O God of new beginnings and wonderful surprises, thank you for the gift of a new year. May it be a time of grace for me, a time to grow in faith and love, a time to renew my commitment to following Your Son, Jesus. May it be a year of blessing for me, a time to cherish my family and friends, a time to renew my efforts at work, a time to embrace my faith more fully. Walk with me, please, in every day and every hour of this new year, that the light of Christ might shine through me, in spite of my weaknesses and failings. Above all, may I remember this year that I am a pilgrim on the sacred path to You. Amen.

–Courtesy of Saint Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre, New York

1 Jan 1622: The #Papal Chancery adopts January 1st as the beginning of the new year. Previously, the new year had been March 25.. #OTD #HappyNewYear #history #pope #NewYear #ad https://t.co/Esutcc8BN6 pic.twitter.com/IeuVjSHyBM

— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) January 1, 2026

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/e7yhREi3FK

— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) January 1, 2026

O God, to whom glory is sung in the highest, while on earth peace is proclaimed to men of good will: Grant that good will to us thy servants, cleanse us from all our sins, and give perpetual peace to us and to all people; through thy mercy, O God, who art blessed, and dost govern all things, world without end.

Bernardino Luini — Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds pic.twitter.com/gXWuqTiQOK

— Bugatti.W16 (@barclain) October 20, 2016

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her vindication goes forth as brightness,
    and her salvation as a burning torch.
The nations shall see your vindication,
    and all the kings your glory;
and you shall be called by a new name
    which the mouth of the Lord will give.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
    and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
    and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;
but you shall be called My delight is in her,
    and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you,
    and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a virgin,
    so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
    so shall your God rejoice over you.

–Isaiah 62:1-5

“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."
– T. S. Eliot

In the shining light of dawn, the pale sunrise falling through the air and the curving lane ahead, anything seems possible.… pic.twitter.com/ssga0M3ndh

— peaklass (@peaklass1) January 1, 2026

God with us means more than God over or side by side with us, before or behind us. It means more than His divine being in even the most intimate active connection with our human being otherwise peculiar to Him. At this point, at the heart of the Christian message and in relation to the event of which it speaks, it means that God has made himself the one who fulfills his redemptive will. It means that He Himself in His own person at His own cost but also on His own initiative has become the inconceivable Yet and Nevertheless of this event, and so its clear and well-founded and legitimate, its true and holy and righteous Therefore. It means that God has become man in order as such, but in divine sovereignty, to take up our case. What takes place in the work of inconceivable mercy is, therefore, the free overruling of God, but it is not an arbitrary overlooking and ignoring, not an artificial bridging, covering over or hiding, but a real closing of the breach, gulf and abyss between God and us for which we are responsible. At the very point where we refuse and fail, offending and provoking God, making ourselves impossible before Him and in that way missing our destiny, treading under foot our dignity, forfeiting our right, losing our salvation and hopelessly compromising our creaturely being at that very point God Himself intervenes as man.

—Church Dogmatics (IV.1) [E.T. By Geoffrey Bromiley and Thomas Torrance of the German Original] (London: T and T Clark, 1956), page 12

Nativity, 1792
Benjamin West pic.twitter.com/18q4DyMTKU

— Juan NAVARRO (@jnavarrosimon) December 20, 2024

And because of His visitation, we may no longer desire God as if He were lacking: our redemption is no longer a question of pursuit but of surrender to Him who is always and everywhere present. Therefore at every moment we pray that, following Him, we may depart from our anxiety into His peace.

–From Simeon in the Christmas Oratorio

Philippe de Champaigne, The Adoration of the Shepherds, ca.1640 pic.twitter.com/LatSDghLD3

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) December 12, 2025

Listen to it all. A reminder of the English translation of the words:

O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!

Man’s maker was made man,
that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast;
that the Bread might hunger,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired on its journey;
that the Truth might be accused of false witness,
the Teacher be beaten with whips,
the Foundation be suspended on wood;
that Strength might grow weak;
that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.

– Augustine of Hippo (Sermons 191.1)

Guido Lanfranco’s ‘Midnight Mass for Christmas’ invites us into one of Malta’s most cherished festive rituals. The artist’s brushstrokes capture the soft glow of candles, the hush of village churches, and the community gathering in hopeful celebration. pic.twitter.com/U7AQkxanSR

— Heritage Malta (@heritagemalta) December 24, 2025

Almighty God, who didst rescue Samuel Ajayi Crowther from slavery, sent him to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ to his people in Nigeria, and made him the first bishop from the people of West Africa: Grant that those who follow in his steps may reap what he has sown and find abundant help for the harvest; through him who took upon himself the form of a slave that we might be free, the same Jesus Christ; who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The first book in the Igbo language (Isoama-Ibo: A Primer) was written by a Yoruba man, Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1809-1891) in 1857.

In the mid-19th century, Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a Yoruba linguist and the first African Anglican bishop, played a key role in pic.twitter.com/KQWWCiPZov

— Africanism Culture (@imakun122) November 15, 2025

Merciful and most loving God, by whose will and bountiful gift thine eternal Son humbled himself that he might exalt mankind, and became flesh that he might renew in us the divine image: Perfect us in thy likeness, and bring us at last to rejoice in beholding thy beauty, and, with all thy saints, to glorify thy grace; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

—Prayers for the Christian Year (SCM, 1964)

A diagram of the interlocking seasons: the year is turning

BL Harley MS 4940; Matfre Ermengaud's Breviari d'amor; 14th century; France (Toulouse?); f.48r@BLMedieval pic.twitter.com/rcKmioPw61

— Ennius (@red_loeb) December 30, 2025

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

–Psalm 46:1-3

Today is New Years Eve, and the Seventh Day of Christmas. Swans then, in 20c glass, mostly flying rather than swimming, by Horace Wilkinson at Paston, Norfolk and by Francis Skeat at Peakirk, Cambridgeshire.#12DaysOfChristmas pic.twitter.com/A83RQH5vNM

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) December 31, 2023