Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to
be still before God.
Opening Prayer: My God, since You are with me, and since it is
Your will that I should apply my mind to these outward things, I pray that You
will give me the grace to remain with You and keep company with You. But so that my work may be better, Lord, work
with me; receive my work and possess all my affections. (The Practice of
the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence)
Scripture Reading for the Day: Isaiah 40:1-5
Reading for Reflection:
It will be up to us to
prepare for the Night of the Child, to prepare the way of the Lord, to make
straight the paths. It will be up to us
to make a journey of sorts toward Bethlehem
The season will be full of stories, of
family and friends, of Christmases long ago, of memories and hopes and
half-forgotten days gone by. And in the
midst of them, we must take care that we do not neglect the telling of the
story. We must be present to its
telling, if we hope for it to touch our hearts.
We are the ones who must ponder in our hearts what all of this has to
teach us about the Story of us all.
It will be up to us to leave our flocks
unattended for a while. It will fall to
us to manage our time and our energy and our calendars and our schedules. We are the ones who must make sure that there
is a place and the time to be silent and thoughtful, to rest and
contemplate. We are the ones who must
seek out the time to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of the Night
of the Child. (Night of the Child by Robert Benson)
Reflection and Listening: silent and written
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Closing Prayer: Lord God, our Heavenly Father, during this season of Advent help us to prepare our hearts for your coming. Come, Lord Jesus! Come and visit your people. We eagerly await your coming. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.
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