Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 11/30

The last day of November, Lord,

then one more month

'til 2025 is history...

It's been quite a year, Lord:

not without its blessings

but laden, too, 

with burdens...

 

And November won't depart 

until her cold rain 

tugs the last few leaves  

from the nimbly branches 

just outside my door...

But today, Lord, 

with December in my face,

I choose the warmth of your embrace

as shelter for my heart,

a haven for my lonely soul,

a refuge for my prayer

and my hope for all

that's yet and sure 

to come...

 

No storm can shake my inmost calm

while to your side, I'm clinging;

you are the Lord of heaven and earth

- how can I keep from singing?

 

Amen.

 

How Can I Keep From Singing 

 

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NIGHT PRAYER: Lighting the first candle...

At sundown today we enter Advent: a season to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas and for the day when Christ will come again at the end of our lives and in the fullness of time...

 

Each Saturday night in this season, Night Prayer will offer a prayer for lighting one or more candles on the Advent wreath...

 

If you have an Advent Wreath at home, pray for peace this week as you light the first candle each day. If you don't have an Advent Wreath - light any candle and pray for peace. If you have no candle, use the virtual candle above - and pray for peace each time you light the candle on your wreath this week...

Let us pray for peace...

Let us pray for an end to terrorism and war,
    an end to violence and bloodshed...

Let us pray for peace in Ukraine and Russia,
    the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria
     Burkina Faso, the Sahel, Haiti,
    the Central African Republic, Somalia,
    the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
    and evvey place where the poor are the victims 

        of power and greed...

 

Let us pray for the wisdom 

    to make peace our final and greatest goal,
    to negotiate rather than attack,
    to speak rather than to raise a fist,
    to reconcile differences in favor of the common good,
    to value human life above any other cause or concern,
    to forgive one another as we would want to be forgiven...

Let us pray for the safe return of those in harm's way, 
    who are far from home, family and friends...

Let us pray for peace at our nation's borders
    and at the borders of nations around the world...

Let us pray for legislation 

    to end to the violence of mass shootings...

Let us pray for racial peace and harmony
    all around the world...

Let us pray for a bipartisan political peace in America...

Let us pray for peace of mind
    for those who grieve loved ones lost in war...

Let us pray for our enemies...  

Let us pray for peace within the Church,
    among those divided 

         by theological and liturgical differences... 

Let us pray for healing peace 

    in the hearts, minds and souls

       of those abused by the Church and her ministers...

Let us pray for the peace
    of truth, honesty and transparency in the Church...

Let us pray for the unity of all who believe in Christ...

Let us pray for peace and understanding
    between the people of different faiths... 

Let us pray for an end to the wars we wage
    in our own families, at our kitchen tables,         

 in our communities and neighborhoods,

    at work, at school and in our parishes...

Let us pray for the peace and safety
    of all who live with domestic violence...

Let us pray for those we make our personal enemies...
    and for those who make enemies of us...

Let us pray for an end to the wars we fight
    with ourselves

        and within ourselves... 

 

Let us pray for healing peace 

    in the minds and hearts
        of all who live with anxiety, 

            fear and depression... 

 

Let us pray for peace in those secret places 

    in our own hearts 

where only God knows 

    how great is our need for peace... 

 

Let us pray for that peace 

    we cannot give or make for ourselves, 

the peace the world cannot give,     

    the peace that comes from God alone... 

Protect us, Lord, while we're awake
    and watch over us while we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you
    and asleep, rest in your peace...

Amen. 

You might find the mood and tone of tonight's song unsettling: it's the plaintive chant of those who long for peace. I offer it here with the thought that we find the peace we truly need only when we acknowledge the depths of our need for God...

During Advent, I'll include a sung Advent Blessing each night just after the Night Prayer musical selection...

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Peace by Dan Loewen 

     

The waters are raging, the storm clouds are near 

How long till this chaos will cease 

Come silence the waves of our worry and fear 

Will you come, will you come, bring us peace 

 

Come O Come Emmanuel 

Come O Come Emmanuel 

 

The waves would obey you 

If you just speak the word 

So we wait in the silence 

For your peace here on earth

 

Advent Blessing  

    composed by Michael Joncas and Alan Hommerding,

        sung by CP and the people of Holy Family Parish, Concord 

 

 

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Pause for Prayer: SATURDAY 11/29

Advent sneaks up on us, making its way through Thanksgiving and landing on our liturgical doorstep.  Here's an Advent primer to help ready us for the season that begins at sunset this evening... 

 

Advent's a season to learn to wait for you, Lord

    - or is it the other way around?

Is Advent the season for me to learn

    that it's you who waits for me? 

This Advent, Lord...

 

Is there something you're waiting for me to learn?
   a word you're waiting for me to hear?

    a word you're waiting for me to speak?

Is there a truth you're waiting for me to discover?
   faith you're waiting for me to deepen?
   hope you're waiting for me to live? 

Is there someone you're waiting for me to love?
    someone you're waiting for me to forgive?
    someone you're waiting for me to comfort?

Is there a gift you're waiting for me to receive?
    a blessing you're waiting for me to enjoy?
    a talent you're waiting for me to share?

Is there a fault you're waiting for me to acknowledge?
   a sin you're waiting for me to face?
   pardon you're waiting for me to seek?

Is there someone you're waiting for me to let go?
   a grudge or resentment I need to shake off?
   a habit you're waiting for me to change?
  
Is there a challenge you're waiting for me to accept?
   a change you're waiting for me to make?
   a path you're waiting for me to walk?

Are you waiting for me to draw closer to you?
   waiting to hear my heart speak in prayer?

   waiting for me to welcome you in?  

 

Are you waiting this Advent for me, O Lord,

     are you waiting for me to learn

        that it's you who wait for me?

In so many ways I'm waiting for you,
   I wait for your word, I wait for your love
but this Advent, Lord, help me to see

   all the ways you're waiting for me...

Amen.

 

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NIGHT PRAYER: Friday 11/28

At sundown tomorrow, Lord, 

    Advent begins

        - and with it a new year of grace!   

 

Ready me now for a new beginning, 

yet one more chance:
    to do what's just, to love what's good 

        and to walk humbly at your side;

to live my life a day at a time,

    desiring, always, 

        to do the next right thing... 

 

Level whatever stands in the way

    of my loving you, my Lord and my God

        with all of my mind, my heart and my soul

    and of loving my neighbor as myself...

Clear me a path to walk with you, Lord, 

    by the light of your word,

    by the truth of your promise,

blessed by your mercy, 

    your wisdom and grace...

Goodbye to the past, Lord,

    the old year of grace! 

Forgive me my sins 

    and refresh my resolve

to be and become the person you made

    the person you'll call me to be

        in the new year of grace just ahead...

 

I heartily welcome this new year of grace, 

    and all it may bring, for weal or for woe

for in all things, Lord, in joy and in sorrow,

    you come to me with healing and peace... 

 

Protect me tonight while I like awake, Lord

    and watch over me as I sleep

that awake I night keep watch with you

    and asleep, rest in your peace...

 

Amen.

 

Tonight's song was written for the beginning of civil new year but it also works very well for the beginning of the new liturgical year, the new year of grace...

 

New Year of Grace by Arrow Prayers

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A new day is dawning, the old has gone,
God’s mercies awaken with each new dawn.
Behold, he is doing a work brand new,

Making streams in the desert, his promise is true.

 

Great is his faithfulness, morning by morning,

Hope for tomorrow, his love never ending.

Plans to give us a future so bright,

In this New Year of grace, we walk in his light.

 

Through trials and shadows, His hand will guide,

Each step of the journey, He’s by our side.

For we know the plans He has are good,

A firm foundation where we’ve always stood.

 

Great is his faithfulness, morning by morning,

Hope for tomorrow, his love never ending.

Plans to give us a future so bright,

In this New Year of grace, we walk in his light.

 

So we’ll trust in the Lord with all of our hearts,

Lean not on our ways, let His path start.

The old is behind us, the new has begun,

We’ll run the race till His kingdom comes.

 

Great is his faithfulness, morning by morning,

Hope for tomorrow, his love never ending.

Plans to give us a future so bright,

In this New Year of grace, we walk in his light.

  

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Pause for Prayer: FRIDAY 11/28

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The day after Thanksgiving...

Pardon our over-indulgence, Lord,

and our conspicuous consumption

at yesterday's holiday table...

 

May we neither waste our plenty
nor hoard the goods

that others need so much...

 

May our bounty not blind us,

our surplus never dull us,

to others' dire straits...

As we plan and shop for Christmas

make us modest in our wish lists

and discerning in our spending...

 

In reaching out to those in need:

may we be more generous

than we've ever been before... 

Help us find the deeper meaning

in the days that lie ahead:

what's holy, healing, helpful, 

and makes us truly happy

in giving of ourselves...

Amen.   

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Later on Thanksgiving Day...

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From my friend, John Fitzsimmons, who's a teacher, singer and poet, a reflection to share as Thanksgiving Day comes near its end...

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Thanksgiving

I am surprised sometimes
by the suddenness of November:
beauty abruptly shed
to a common nakedness--
grasses deadened
by hoarfrost,
persistent memories
of people I've lost.

It is left to those of us
dressed in the hard
barky skin of experience
to insist on a decorum
that rises to the greatness
of a true Thanksgiving.

This is not a game
against a badly scheduled team,
an uneven match on an uneven pitch.

This is Life.
This is Life.
This is Life.

Not politely mumbled phrases,
murmured with a practiced and meticulous earnestness.

Thanksgiving was born a breech-birth,
a screaming appreciation for being alive--
for not being one of the many
who didn't make it--
who couldn't moil through
another hardscrabble year
on tubers and scarce fowl.

Thanksgiving is for being you.
There are no thanks without you.

You are the power of hopeful promise;
you are the balky soil turning upon itself;
you are bursting forth in your experience.

You are not the person next to you--
not an image or an expectation.
You are the infinite and eternal you--
blessed, and loved, and consoled
by the utter commonness
and community of our souls.

We cry and we're held.
We love and we hold.

We are the harvest of God,
constantly renewed,
constantly awakened
to a new thanksgiving.

- John Fitzsimmons

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NIGHT PRAYER: Thanksgiving Day

Tonight, Lord, 

I'm grateful for the gift of faith:

    that strength, power and source within

    showing me the way,

    guiding me in the dark,

    making sure my faltering step,

    giving light to find the truth

    and hope for living gracefully

    through all my trials and troubles...

 

Tonight, Lord, I'm grateful for the gift of your Church:

    that wounded, rag-tag, joyful company 

        of saints and sinners, one and all,

    whose faith is our strength, binding us together,

    brothers, sisters - family-  together, one in you...

 

Tonight, I'm grateful for the people in my life:

    who've helped me become the person I am;

    who've loved me in ways too many to know;

    who've loved me when I've failed to love in return;

    who've pardoned me often with mercy and grace;

    who've shared their joy and filled me with peace;

    who've helped me trust and not to doubt

    that you're by my side and that all shall be well...

 

Tonight, Lord, I'm grateful 

    for the mystery of your presence:

        in everyone I know and meet;

        in the simple joys of ordinary days;

        and in the stillness of the time I spend

            along with you in prayer...

 

And on this Thanksgiving night, Lord, 

   I'm grateful for...

    (take some time right now to tell the Lord 

     what you're most grateful for this evening...)*

Tonight I praise and thank you
    for you're my Lord and God
        from whom all blessings flow...

Protect me, Lord while I'm awake,

    watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

    and asleep, rest in your peace...

 

Amen.

 

* Tonight's music is instrumental, meant to provide

a some background for the time you spend naming the

people and the gifts you're grateful for in your life...

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Song at the End of the Day by Secret Garden

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