Advent Prayers for Christ-Seekers - December 1

Nativity Prayer

Let Your goodness Lord appear to us, that we
made in your image, conform ourselves to it.
In our own strength
we cannot imitate Your majesty, power, and wonder
nor is it fitting for us to try.
But Your mercy reaches from the heavens
through the clouds to the earth below.
You have come to us as a small child,
but you have brought us the greatest of all gifts,
the gift of eternal love
Caress us with Your tiny hands,
embrace us with Your tiny arms
and pierce our hearts with Your soft, sweet cries.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

I’m struck by the sensual images that St. Bernard brings to his prayer: the caress of the tiny hands of a baby, the embrace of those tiny arms, and the sound of a soft, sweet cry. While I’ve seen my share of plastic babes in assorted mangers, somehow I don’t make the connection with Jesus before his adult years. When I think of him, it is as a man, striding through the crowds, sitting on the hillside, storming through the temple. Yet if Christ was the incarnation at age 32, he was also the incarnation at the age of 6 months.

When our infant granddaughter strokes my cheek, I feel cherished and comforted. It is this touch, this image, that reaches me in Bernard’s prayer. Ah, little Lord Jesus – in your infancy, in your manger, in your helplessness, you were God, and you reached out – in fact, you continue to reach out – to lavish your love upon us, your children. Caress, embrace, pierce – come, Lord Jesus.