For the crib, the table and the night

Prayers for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home.

Christmas in a Catholic home has more to it than the meal: the crib is blessed, the table is prayed over, and somebody, at some point, reads Luke 2 aloud. These are the prayers for those moments.

Blessing of the Christmas Crib

God of every nation and people,
from the very beginning of creation
You have made manifest Your love.

Bless this crib, and all who look upon it,
that it may remind us of the humble birth of Jesus,
and raise our thoughts to Him,
who is God-with-us and Saviour of all,
and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Grace at the Christmas Table

Lord Jesus, born in poverty and laid in a manger,
bless this table and everyone around it.

We remember those who are missing from it this year:
the ones who have died, the ones far away,
and the ones we have not spoken to.

Make us generous to those with nothing,
and grateful for what we have been given. Amen.

Prayer on Christmas Night

At midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold,
You came to us.

Come to us again tonight, Lord,
to this house, to these people, to me.

Be born in whatever part of me is still a stable —
unready, unswept and cold —
and make something of it. Amen.

About These Prayers

The Christmas crib was St. Francis of Assisi’s idea, staged at Greccio in 1223 with live animals and a manger, so that people who could not read might see what the Gospel meant. Eight centuries later it is still the most effective piece of catechesis in the Church.