Praying with Charlie Brown Christmas: Prayers of the People

Notes on use: The leader prays the first line and the community responds with the bold text. I have used this prayer in a chapel service while showing a clip of the movie, depending on your time you may start the movie at Charlie Brown asking, “Does anyone really know what Christmas is all about?” and slowly pray while the music plays under the scene to follow Linus quoting the Gospel of Luke as the children put the blanket around the tree. Or play that clip and then pause it on an image you like or the image of the children presenting the restored tree while a a music director plays the song under the prayers or play the songs audio under your prayer.) 

For the modern spirit’s maze of shopping malls and early bird sales, for the commercials which push us to buy more so we can be more;

Loving God, help us find our way to your calm center and take root.

For people who stand alone as the holiday party rolls on, missing the mistletoe, strolling snow dappled lanes without the warmth of a loved one’s hand; 

Loving God help us find our way to you. 

For the Lucy inside, drawn in by the sound of clinking nickels and the green hum of money, money, money, for Sally’s lists and letters where wanting meets need;

    Loving God, transform our lists of wants into gifts of generosity.

For the fears we can label and the worries we can’t, 

    for prize-winning lights that don’t really glow;

    Loving God, call us to open our hearts and be your all-loving light.

For the little trees that need a little love, for the difference our presence can make, 

    for hands that make the season green 

        with growth and hope not envy and greed;

    Loving God, be with us, work in us and love through us.

For ice skates and snowflakes ripe for the tongue, 

    for the sheep and the Shepherd’s, for the innkeepers who struggle to keep clean, 

        for the directors and even the Christmas queen, 

    for all of the ways we dance into your season of relationship, love and grace; 

Loving God may we find you in the detail of everyday 

    and honor the sacred in each face