Nothing could be more wonderful, moving, and enlightening than the Christmas story itself. It happened to a people who suffered beyond endurance under the Roman rule, with a mad Asmodean king tormented by prophecies of his own destruction. The yearning for a Messiah, a leader to freedom and a better way of life, filled all their thoughts and prayers. The out of Bethlehem cam the Nativity, prophetic, mysterious, and unearthly: choirs of angels singing from the skies; a strange radiance on the dark hills, shepherds stunned and speechless as they watched their flocks in the lonely night; Wise Men from afar following an unknown star to pay homage to a Baby born in a manger with a gleaming aureole about his head. All testified to the deep significance of “the thing that are and cannot be”. Until almost two thousand years ago, the greeting at midwinter was, “I give you light for the year.” About a century after the first Christmas, John, author of the fourth gospel, wrote of Advent in terms of spiritual Light shining through the world’s darkness….

… And the greeting gradually became, “I give you Christ, the Light of the World.”

Frances Brentano, The Light of Christmas

What are you waiting and watching for God to do this Advent Season?

What is it that you are inwardly yearning for God to be at work this Advent?

Advent: Week 2

Advent is in many ways the most beautiful and profound time of the

Christian year …

Advent means ‘coming’, and the season is about

our waiting for the most mysterious and

wonderful coming of all, into the heart of our

lives, our needy lives …

… from the heart of the Christian people, and down through the centuries, the prayer has gone up:

‘Show us, Lord, your steadfast love. And grant

us your salvation’. ‘Come, Lord, and bring us

peace. Let us rejoice before you with sincere hearts’.

And we can pray now: ‘Lord, help us to wait, with patience, with longing, for

your coming – your coming into our poor

lives.

As once your people waited, and you came in our midst as a child, to be

among us …

so help us nowto wait,

and hope, and love

what we wait for: your coming,

and your peace’.

Prayer in the Days … of Advent

My brother, Jesus. It happens every year. I think that this will

be the year that I have a reflective Advent.

I look forward to Sunday and this new season, Jesus. But all

around me are the signs rushing me to Christmas

and some kind of celebration that equates spending with

love.

I need your help. I want to slow my world down. This

year, more than ever, I need Advent, these weeks of

reflection and longing for hope in the darkness …

Jesus, this year, help me to have

that longing.

Help me to feel it in my heart and be aware of the

hunger and thirst in my own soul.

Deep down, I know there is something missing in my life,

but I can’t quite reach for it.

I can’t get what is missing.

I know it is about you, Jesus.

You are not missing from my life, but I might be missing the

awareness of all of the places

you are present there.

Be with me, my dear friend. Guide me in these weeks

to what you want to show me this Advent.

Help me to be vulnerable enough to ask you to lead

me to the place of my own weakness,

the very place where I will find you the most deeply

embedded in my heart,

loving me without limits.

Lord, let me experience your coming into my heart today.

 Lord, I want to embrace the gift of peace you are offering me.

 Please, Lord, slow me down.

 Forgive me my impatience, my judgments, my jealousies, my greed and any way I make

strained relationships even worse.

 Help me be sensitive to the needs, struggles, pain of others today.

 Give me the courage to offer gestures of peace and love and reconciliation, where they

are needed today.

 Help me chew the message of your coming today: into poverty, to enter my own

experience, to be truly with me.

Are any of these your Desire for Advent Season?

 

 Lord, you know my heart, with all its mystery and

complexity. 

Please let me know my desires,

let me know what I need, let me humbly ask you for

your graces these precious days ahead.

www.sacredspace.org

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Advent/christmas.html