05B*
A Call to Worship
Christmas Eve/Day Year B 2011
Psalm 96

Blessings and honour are given to our Most High God!
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised - forever!
We join in the anthem of praise to our Glorious God.

We gather to worship God whose holy splendour is
beyond our knowledge, experience and understanding!
Great is the Lord and worthy of all praise and reverence.

Let all creation be united in its praise and worship of our
God the King, and the Wondrous Creator of all things.
We gather as God’s people in this place and time, adding
our worship to the endless chorus of thankfulness to God. Amen.

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Prayers of Praise and Thankfulness
Christmas Eve/Day Year B 2011
Psalm 96

Creating God, we gather to add our voices; our songs
of praise; our prayer of thankfulness; and our whole
being - communally and individually – to the never-ending
anthem of joy-filled worship of our Life-Renewing God.

Sustaining God, each day, a new song bubbles up in our
hearts and minds; each night a new prayer of praise and
thankfulness rises and reaches out to our God. Each moment,
we have an awareness of the glories of our God, and our
limited souls, minds and hearts seek to stretch in response
to the presence of our Radiant God, whose light and love
streams down upon all creation, giving it life and purpose,
strength and joy. All this in the knowledge that we worship
a God whose truth and righteousness is utterly to be trusted.

Glorious God, we gather together to share this good news,
and to remind each other that God has firmly established
this world, and nothing in life or death can shake our God.
We gather as flawed humanity in the presence of the Holy
One; whose creativity is continually expressed in the earth,
in the heavens, in the seas, and in outer space; and we offer
our worship, our reverence, and our praise to this our God. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Christmas Eve/Day Year B 2011
Psalm 96

How I love to sing praises to my God, and how I yearn
to more worthily respond to the wonders of my God as I
experience them every day! How I long to proclaim the
news of God’s saving mercies; and how I yearn to more
adequately express my experiences of God’s majesty,
powers and strength, that undergird me every day and
every moment of my life, giving me the courage to share
with all who will listen, my sincere appreciation of my God.



All creation has its own ways of expressing itself, be they
leaves rustling in the gentle breeze; oceans heaving their
watery masses against impregnable rocks; outer space
sparkling with their delight; creatures that add their input
in their own various ways; all of life in its many formations
join in the never-ending celebration of their Creating God.



Somehow, all the songs; all the dances; all the shouts of joy
and celebration still seem inadequate to me when they are
offered to God. Yet when I ponder the miracle of my God;
the truth and righteousness of my God; the generosity of
my God; the blessings of my God; the restless creativity of
my God; I am still lost in wonder; I am still speechless; and
I can only in humble adoration, offer all I am to my God.

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Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and Meditations are from
‘The New Revised Standard Version’ Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

*The additional weekly numbering is from the Revised COCU Indexing Scheme
COCU = ('Consultation on Church Union'); as it offers an easy sequential numbering
for the Revised Common Lectionary for the Church Calendar.

If any part of these Prayers and/or Meditations is used in shared worship, please provide
the following acknowledgement:
© 2011 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: christmaseveb_2011.pdf

© 2011 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year B