The Prayer I May Use With My Family On Christmas Eve.

In searching for a prayer to use on Christmas Eve when the entire family is present, I came across this prayer which seems to fit the solemness of the state of our union in December, 2009. I could have looked for something about the baby Jesus specifically--and I still may. But right now this is my choice of dinner prayer because it will underscore the gravity of our current circumstances in the United States of America. I'm happy to share it with you. And to wish you and yours a blessed Christmas and Hanukkah.

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We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who love them.... We ask almighty God to watch over our nation, and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of life to come.

As we have been assured, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, can separate us from God's love. May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own. And may He always guide our country. God bless America.

--George W. Bush (at the National Cathedral, September 14, 2001, after the September 11 terrorist attacks.)