For a printable version, Daily Reflections - December
December 1
"May the lights of Hanukkah usher in a better world for all humankind." - Author Unknown
December 2
"'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May it be to me as you have said.' Then the angel left her." - Luke 1: 38
December 3
"Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas." - Peg Bracken
December 4
"The earth has grown old with its burden of care
But at Christmas it always is young,
The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair
And its soul full of music breaks the air,
When the song of angels is sung."
- Phillips Brooks
December 5
"This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone." - Taylor Caldwell
December 6
"It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air." - W. T. Ellis
December 7
"When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife." - Matthew 1:24
December 8
"Christmas, my child, is love in action." - Dale Evans
December 9
"Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart." - Hannah Senesh
December 10
There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience. - French Proverb
December 11
"When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness." - Bob Hope
December 12
"Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart." - Washington Irving
December 13
"The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas." - W. C. Jones
December 14
"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." - Luke 2: 19-20
December 15
"To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle." - Walt Whitman
December 16
"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.'" - Mathew 2:1-2
December 17
"Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect." - Oren Arnold
December 18
"As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is." - Eric Sevareid
December 19
"Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion." - Ralph Sockman
December 20
"Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever." - Bess Streeter Aldrich
December 21
"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'" - Luke 2:8-12
December 22
"'Maybe Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more.'" - Dr. Seuss from 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'
December 23
"Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world." - Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), Presidential message offered on December 25, 1927
December 24
Christmas Eve Prayer
"Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure.
Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness.
Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts.
And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace."
- Frank Borman, Apollo 8 space mission, 1968
December 25
"Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given, when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes." - Joan Winmill Brown
December 26
"Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone." - Deborah Whipp
December 27
"At Christmas, all roads lead home." - Marjorie Holmes
December 28
"When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.' So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them." - Luke 2: 15-18
December 29
"Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
December 30
"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." - Edith Lovejoy Pierce
December 31
"Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall." - Fulton J. Sheen
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