Read "A Christmas Prayer for Lonely Folks" by Henry Van Dyke online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Lord God of the solitary, / Look upon me in my loneliness. / Since I may not keep this Christmas in the home, / Send it into my heart.
Let not my sins cloud me in, / But shine through them with forgiveness in the face of the child Jesus. / Put me in loving remembrance of the lowly lodging in the stable of Bethlehem, / The sorrows of the blessed Mary, the poverty and exile of the Prince of Peace. / For His sake, give me a cheerful courage to endure my lot, / And an inward comfort to sweeten it.
Purge my heart from hard and bitter thoughts. / Let no shadow of forgetting come between me and friends far away: / Bless them in their Christmas mirth: / Hedge me in with faithfulness, / That I may not grow unworthy to meet them again.
Give me good work to do, / That I may forget myself and find peace in doing it for Thee. / Though I am poor, send me to carry some gift to those who are poorer, / Some cheer to those who are more lonely. / Grant me the joy to do a kindness to one of Thy little ones: / Light my Christmas candle at the gladness of an innocent and grateful heart.
Strange is the path where Thou leadest me: / Let me not doubt Thy wisdom, nor lose Thy hand. / Make me sure that Eternal Love is revealed in Jesus, Thy dear Son, / To save us from sin and solitude and death. / Teach me that I am not alone, / But that many hearts, all round the world, / Join with me through the silence, while I pray in His name:
_Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name._ / _Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven._ / _Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors._ / _And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: _ / _For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. / Amen._