Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Words and Prayers for the Season

We know inside ourselves our own darknesses; or, if we do not know them or understand them, we feel them brooding in us as sadness and silences, fears whispering, echoing chasms of anguish where we seem to stand at the brink of despair. And the winter that comes surrounds us visibly with the cold and the dark that invisibly we live with every day and in all seasons. And in this time the cry of Advent reverberates across our lives...

"Watch-man, tell us of the night, what are its signs of promise?" The answer that comes is not given by human-kind for such an answer would only be darkness speaking to darkness. Rather there comes a transcendent Word, an eternal shout of joy, a promise signed in heaven itself. There comes the word of divine comfort. In our sophistications we may not hear it, we may turn from it, we may despise it. If so, our dark remains dark, and we continue to be of all people the most miserable.

O Lord, the watch-persons of ten thousand times ten thousand cities cry to the winter night the news of thy coming. Even so, we praise thee, Word of Light to our darkness, Word of Peace to our warfare, Word of Love and Justice to our fear. Let carols sing, let prayers adore, let the whole earth rejoice and declare thee. Thou art fire and garland. Thou art the good shepherd and the true king. With angels and archangels we adore thee.

O God, we are strangers and sojourners, except thou art with us. We are no people, except we are thy people. Our very days are lost, except we find them in thee. We know no mercy, except we receive thy mercy. Come to us. Sing in us new songs. Teach our prayers our needs. Give us thyself. Be our defender against the evil day and the false prosperity. And set our feet on the paths that run toward Bethlehem.

We are making ready, Lord. Our hearts are hillsides listening. Our minds are hastening footsteps. Our bodies are a cradle. Our whole being is praise and rejoicing. And unto thee be the glory, O Word made flesh, in whose peace we are secure, in whose mercy we are forgiven, and in whose love we are redeemed, forever and ever. Amen.

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