Welcome to The Examine, your daily prayer hosted by Father James Martin and brought to you by America Media, a Jesuit ministry.

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I'm Father Jim Martin. I'm about to lead you through a traditional Jesuit prayer that will help you

notice where God has been in your day.

But first, let's begin with our weekly reflection, which is released every Sunday.

For many people, the Christmas season can be something of a letdown.

There are many reasons for that.

First, the adult Christmases can never live up to our

childhood memories. That can be even worse if we have unpleasant childhood memories about Christmas.

Second, for those of us who live alone or feel lonely, Christmas might be an even more difficult time. Third, some of us might be

wiped out after all the shopping and traveling. Finally, for believers, we might feel disappointed

that all the big plans we had to recommit ourselves to prayer at Advent have come to naught.

So some Christmas letdown is natural.

But in the midst of this disappointment,

it's important to remember that Christmas is not about gifts

or what your tree looked like or didn't look like,

or about shopping, or even about friends and family.

It's not even about how much praying you got in.

It's about something more radical.

The fact that God loved us so much that God became one of us.

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