it would look like this for Advent!
12/2/25
12/1/25
Pause for Prayer: TUESDAY 12/2
On December 2, 1980, three Maryknoll nuns and one lay missioner were brutally raped and murdered on the side of the road outside the airport in San Salvador. These churchwomen are sometimes called the four roses of December...
NCR's columnist John Dear recounts their story:
I stepped out of my room and reached down for the Durham Morning Herald and blanched at the headline: "Four churchwomen killed in El Salvador." Their bodies had been found in a shallow grave in a barren region some 15 miles from the San Salvador airport. Three were nuns: Sr. Ita Ford of Maryknoll had spent years in Chile; Sr. Maura Clarke also of Maryknoll had spent years in Nicaragua; and Sr. Dorothy Kazel, an Ursuline nun from Cleveland worked in El Salvador. The fourth, a young laywoman, Jean Donovan, had volunteered to go to El Salvador through a church mission program.
Sr. Ita Ford stands, to my mind, as one of the church's giants. She was targeted specifically by U.S.-backed Salvadoran death squads because she stood up to them in defense of the disappeared. "You say you don't want anything to happen to me," she wrote her sister in 1980. "I'd prefer it that way myself -- but I don't see that we have control over the forces of madness, and if you could choose to enter into other people's suffering, or to love others, you at least have to consent in some way to the possible consequences. Actually what I've learned here is that death is not the worst evil. We look death in the face every day. But the cause of the death is evil. That's what we have to wrestle and fight against."
Sr. Maura Clarke spent 17 years in Nicaragua working against the U.S.-backed Somozoa dictatorship, before moving to El Salvador only months before her death. "If we leave the people when they suffer the cross, how credible is our word to them?" she wrote only weeks before her death. "The church's role is to accompany those who suffer the most, and to witness our hope in the resurrection."
Sr. Dorothy Kazel joined the Cleveland Mission Team in El Salvador and was assigned to work in the parish of La Libertad with Jean Donovan. Dorothy was beloved by one and all. She was feisty, lively and sweet.
Jean Donovan grew up in upper-middle-class Westport, Conn., attended the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, spent a life-changing year in Ireland, and tried to become an accountant. Instead, she joined the Cleveland diocese and Maryknoll Lay Mission programs to serve in El Salvador. After several years, she found herself in the center of a war zone. And more often than not, she and the others spent their days picking up murdered bodies left along the road...
That summer, Jean's two closest friends were assassinated after they had taken her to a movie and walked her home. Their deaths devastated her."The Peace Corps left today and my heart sank low," she wrote later that fall. "The danger is extreme and they were right to leave. Now I must assess my own position, because I am not up for suicide. Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could, except for the children, the poor, bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and loneliness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine..."
On the evening of Dec. 2, Jean and Dorothy drove to the airport to meet Ita and Maura, who were returning from Managua. The four women were last seen driving from the airport down the main road. Two days later their bodies were discovered. They had been raped and shot at close range...
(Read the complete article here)
Here I Am, Lord by Dan Schutte,
sung by John Michael Talbot
O God,
We remember today four women
We remember today four women
who braved everything,
risked everything
and gave everything
for their love of the Prince of Peace
for their love of the Prince of Peace
and his beloved people...
They heard you calling in the night, Lord,
they heard the cry of the poor
and they carried your people's pain...
When you call me in these Advent days,
I pray I'll have the faith and trust to answer,
"Here I am, Lord.
I'll go where you lead me!"
Show me how, in my own time and place,
in my own daily circumstances,
I might hear and answer the cry of the poor
and hold your people in my heart...
Amen.
NIGHT PRAYER: Monday 121
Oh, Lord,
that you would rend the heavens and come down,
with the mountains quaking before you,
while you wrought awesome deeds
with the mountains quaking before you,
while you wrought awesome deeds
we could not hope for,
such as they had not heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen,
any God but you doing such deeds
for those who wait for him...
such as they had not heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen,
any God but you doing such deeds
for those who wait for him...
-Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-3
O God,
some days I really do need
for you to open up the heavens
and come cannon-balling into my life
with help and healing!
some days I really do need
for you to open up the heavens
and come cannon-balling into my life
with help and healing!
And some days, Lord,
you seem just out of reach
when I want so much
for you to take my hand
and lead me safely
wherever it is I need to go.
you seem just out of reach
when I want so much
for you to take my hand
and lead me safely
wherever it is I need to go.
Help me trust,
in these Advent days,
that something great is coming,
that you are coming into my life:
in these Advent days,
that something great is coming,
that you are coming into my life:
gently, powerfully, mercifully,
with healing and with peace...
Open the heavens, Lord,
and come down!
Open up my heart
and barge right in!
Forgive my sins and heal my wounds,
dispel my fears and give me peace...
I wait for you, my God,
each day and night,
I wait for you.
Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake
and watch over me while I sleep
that awake, I might keep watch with you
and asleep rest in your peace...
Amen.
Rend the Heavens
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Monday Morning Offering: 12/1
Morning Coffee by George Mendoza
On the church calendar, a new "year of grace" begins on the first Sunday of Advent as once again, over the course of a year, we unfold the mystery of Jesus: in history, in word and sacrament and in our own lives... Happy New Year!
Good morning, good God!
Advent offers a new year of grace, grace that's yours alone to give - and always mine to receive...
In this new year, Lord, I want to open the door to my heart. Enter freely! Walk right in and make yourself at home...
I offer you the corners of my heart's secret garden where I often let the weeds grow wild: help me prune away whatever fails to nourish my body, my mind, my soul...
I offer you the closets of my heart: they're filled with grudges and resentments; stuffed with boxes of wasted time, bags of foolishness and suitcases of misspent effort. Help me clean out and throw out anything and everything that will not help me heal and mend and grow...
And I offer you the cellar of my heart, Lord, where I keep trunks of hurt and anger: turn your key healing grace and open them: free me of what I've locked up, all that burdens me and holds me down...
Lord, I offer you my heart's deepest Advents hopes for this new year of grace: my pledge to come to prayer, every day and every night; my hope of finding all my strength in you; my desire to rely on you for the wisdom of your word; my promise to to forgive those who have offended me, to be faithful in serving my neighbor's need and quick to welcome the lost and lonely...
I offer the new year ahead of me, Lord, and my resolve to live it as your disciple, trusting that you're present, close by my side, and in everyone I meet and know...
I offer you the new year ahead, Lord - just a day at a time -and I pray for the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference...
Amen.
11/30/25
NIGHT PRAYER: Sunday 1130
On Sundays, Night Prayer takes its lead from some element from the day's liturgy
and today is the First Sunday of Advent....
I love the season of Advent, Lord...
I love the muted colors:
shades of violet, rose and purple;
I love the plaintiff, ancient song:
O Come, Emmanuel...
I love this month-long refuge
from the hustle and the bustle
and your blessing on my waiting
for the promise of your coming...
But let me not forget, Lord,
it's Advent everywhere...
It's Advent in the darkness
where the hues of joy have faded...
It's Advent in Ukraine,
where bombing mutes the carols...
It's Advent for the migrants
seeking safety and asylum...
It's Advent for the lonely,
the abandoned and rejected...
It's Advent for the poor
who can't afford what Christmas costs...
It's Advent for the ones who wait
for blessings they've been promised...
It's Advent where the people long
for justice and for freedom...
It's Advent where your coming
is the peace for which we long;
it's Advent where your peace, Lord,
is the gift we need to share...
As Advent wraps its arms around
my heart, my soul, my prayer
let me not forget or doubt, Lord,
that Advent's everywhere...
Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake
and 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 a new Advent song which I'm grateful to have come across online. Nolan's lyrics and Arbaugh's melody capture humankind's, indeed creation's longing for the coming of our God...
The Longing
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The earth is longing for the light
waiting in the stillness of the night
praying for a star of hope so bright:
O come, O come, Emmanuel.
Come, O come, Emmanuel.
The earth is waiting for a song
music in the night to wake the dawn,
noble themes so true and strong:
O come, O come, Emmanuel.
Come, O come, Emmanuel.
Come, come, Emmanuel,
hear the cry of Israel.
Come, come, Emmanuel,
hear the cry of Israel.
The earth is waiting for a rose
waiting for the garden grace bestows,
searching for a love to bloom and grow.
O come, O come, Emmanuel.
Come, O come, Emmanuel.
Come, O come, Emmaneul.
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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11/29/25
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
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...
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
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 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
with ourselves
and within ourselves...
Let us pray for healing peace
in the minds and hearts
of all who live with anxiety,
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
11/28/25
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 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.
Amen.
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
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,
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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