Prayer of the Christmas season

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Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

1 John 4,7-10

My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love. This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him. Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

"Let us love one another" John writes in his first letter and with an affirmation never used anywhere in the entire Bible - defines the very mystery of God: "God is love." Saint Augustine comments: "If nothing else had been written in praise of love in the rest of the letter, or better in the rest of Scripture, and we had heard from the mouth of the Holy Spirit just this assertion, 'God is love,' we would not have to look for anything else." By affirming, "God is love," John sums up what the whole history of salvation testifies: namely, that God has chosen his people to love them, to free them from sin and death. And it is such a faithful love that he does not abandon his people even when they betray Him. Jesus showed it in a way impossible to imagine as he gave his own life to save men and women, even those who were killing him. In the fourth Gospel John confirms the quality of God's love: "God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him." How then could someone not understand this impassioned argument, meant to convince the hearts and minds of believers to welcome this love so that they can live it and therefore also understand it? The apostle writes: "Since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another." The love of which John is speaking is that which he has seen in Jesus and has experienced personally. The love that is laid in the hearts of the disciples is that which Jesus has lived till the end. Those who welcome this love, abide in God and already know Him intimately.