Day 268 | Saturday, 12 December 2020

Day 268 - Audio Version

---

Day 268 | Saturday, 12 December 2020

 “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” - Stanza 5:

 “O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home. 
The captives from their prison free,
and conquer death’s deep misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.”

Antiphon 5: “O KEY OF DAVID and Scepter of the house of Israel who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens: Come, and bring forth from prison the captive who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death.”

 “People Look East” - Stanza 4:

 “Angels announce with shouts of mirth
him who brings new life to earth. 
Set every peak and valley humming
with the word, the Lord is coming. 
People, look east:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.”

 Advent: “Come, joy, lighten our spirits.  Come, hope, lift us from despair.  Come, peace, ease our frantic worry.  Come, love, shine in all we do.  Come, Jesus, be born in us.  Come, Lord, set us free.  Come, God, rule in our hearts and teach us to sing with joy!”

 Advent Prayer: “Most gracious God, prepare our hearts and minds to receive your deep peace.  Take from us all weariness of spirit.  Hush the anxieties that shout in our minds.  Release us from bondage to irritations that deplete our energy.  Prepare us now to receive your living Word with joy through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

 Advent Prayer of Confession:
“Loving God, it is true that we do not see your new vision for life. We get stuck in old patterns, bad habits, limited hopes. We do not look deep enough to see you in the midst of difficulty, to find you inside our anxious longing. We do not recognize you in our longing for someone or something to take away the emptiness. We place our hopes on some present, some kind word, some new experience and miss the deepest love which is offered to us by the child in the manger.  Persistent God open us to seeing you in the paradoxes of life. Give us reason to smile, knowing you are working in the ups and downs of our busy days.  Set loose a new hope in us and in all. Amen.”

 Advent Prayer:
“O Creator, promise for the world, hear our prayers during this time of waiting.  We hear your call to journey toward the light, and yet we stumble. Our journey toward your promise of Christ's coming is filled with doubt, pain and often despair that there is meaning in the waiting. Our losses, our worries overtake us, so that we dwell in darkness rather than moving toward the light.

[silent prayer]

Create in us the thread of hope that pulls us forward from promise to the miracle of new life. Create in us a clean spirit so that our journey is no longer weary but filled with the energy of adventure! As the Christ child comes, so we, too, come back to you. Amen.”

 Advent Blessing:
“In our Lord's peaceful kingdom, the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and a little child shall lead them. With hearts hungry for this vision of harmony, let us put faith in the child of Bethlehem and follow him in the way of peace.”

 Advent Quote:
“God whispers to us in every candle and carol, every card and crèche: "I love you, I love you."
-Leonard Sweet