A Concord Pastor Comments: NIGHT PRAYER: Saturday 11/30

At sundown today we enter he season of Advent: a season to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas and to prepare our hearts 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 focus on 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,
   violence and bloodshed...

Let us pray for peace in Ukraine and Russia,
   Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan,
   Burkina Faso, the Sahel, Haiti,
   the Central African Republic, Somalia,
   the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
   Sudan, Syria and all the other places
   where the poor are the victims of greed for power...

Let us pray for the wisdom we need

to speak before raising a fist,

to negotiate rather than attack,

   to reconcile conflicts in favor of the common good,
   to prize human life above any other cause or concern,
   to forgive one another as we want to be forgiven...

Let us pray for the safe return of those in harm's way,
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 peace and legislation

to end to the violence of mass shootings...

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

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

Let us pray for our enemies...

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

by theological, political 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 and neighborhoods,
       at work, at school and in our parishes...

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

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

Let us pray for an end to the wars we fight
   with ourselves, 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 hearts
   where only God knows how great is our need for peace...

Let us pray for the 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. Actually, I believe Dan Loewen has captured for our own times the cry that wells up in the more familiar "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." 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...

If two widgets don't appear below, click here!

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

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,