Holy Christmas 2023

We Clarist Franciscan Missionaries of the Most Blessed Sacrament, gathered from Europe to South America,

from Africa to India, in the gift of the Child Jesus born in the grotto of Bethlehem,

wish to  send you all our best wishes for a Holy Christmas and a peaceful 2024.

This year, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the Nativity scene that St Francis first set up in Greccio in 1223, we propose a different prayer to be recited on the 25th December.
A prayer that does not stop at the invitation to praise God, but spurs every man to act in the name of the Lord, to give himself to Him and to the fulfilment of His will.

CHRISTMAS PSALM OF SAINT FRANCIS (FS 281. 303.)

Exult in God, our help,
Jubilate to the Lord God living and true with a voice of joy.

For mighty and dreadful is the Lord,
Great King over all the earth.

For the most holy heavenly Father
our King before the ages
sent down from on high his beloved Son,
and he was born of the blessed Virgin Mary.

He has called upon me: ‘You are my father’,
and I will make him my firstborn,
highest of the kings of the earth.

In that day the Lord sent his mercy
and in the night his song.

This is the day, which the Lord has made:
Let us rejoice in it and be glad.

For the most holy beloved Child is given to us
and was born for us on the way
and was laid in the manger
for he had no place in the inn.

Glory to the Lord God in the highest,
and peace on earth to men of good will.

Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult,
quiver the sea and all it holds,
Let the fields and all they contain rejoice.

Sing to him a new canticle;
Sing to the Lord from all the earth.

For great is the Lord and worthy of all praise,
he is terrible above all gods.

Give to the Lord, oh land of the peoples
the glory and honour
the glory of his name.

Bring your bodies as an offering
and take upon your shoulders his holy Cross
and follow to the end his most holy commandments.

Glory to the Father.