Lighting the Second Candle on the Advent Wreath

  

At sundown today we begin to celebrate the Second Sunday in 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...

 

Last week we prayed for peace, this week we pray for faith...

 

If you have an Advent Wreath at home, light the second and first candles each night this week.  If you don't have an Advent Wreath, light any candle you have. And if you have no candle, use the virtual candle above and join us all in prayer...

As we light the second candle on the Advent wreath, 
    we pray for the gift of faith...

- for the deepening of faith
       in the hearts of all believers...

- for deeper personal faith 

       in trying, troubling times...

- for the gift of faith
       for all those who seek it...

- for the strengthening of faith
       when in we're in doubt...

- for faith to sustain us

        in worry and fear, 

            in anxiety and grief...

 

- for the faith we need just to make it 

        from day to day 

            and through the night...

- for any whose faith
       is tenuous, shaken or broken...

- for faith to help us survive
        unexpected crises and changes...

- for faith to embolden our words and deeds

        with courage and zeal...

- for the prudence of faith to help us discern
        with clarity and compassion...

- for the wisdom of faith to anoint our thoughts

        with reason, vision and truth...

- for faith that leads us to love one another

        with integrity, justice and honor..   

 

- for the faith we need to share our faith

        with humility and conviction,

            with freedom and joy...

- for faith that seeks to live in peace
        with people of other beliefs and faiths,

 

We pray for faith to lead us, Lord,

    to respect and revere the whole of creation,

    to work for a harvest of justice and peace,

    to share from our want when serving the poor...

 

Give us deep faith in you and your love, 

    faith in your mercy, your word and your truth,

faith in our neighbors, near and far,

    and faith in ourselves to do what you ask...

 

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.

 

We Walk By Faith by Marty Haugen

 

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We walk by faith and not by sight
No gracious words we hear
Of him who spoke as none e'er spoke
Yet we believe him near

 
We may not touch his hands and side
Or follow where he trod
Yet in his promise we rejoice
And cry "My Lord and God"

 
Help then, oh Lord, our unbelief
And may our faith abound
To call on you when you are near
And seek where you are found

 
That when our life of faith is done
In realms of clearer light
We may behold you as you are
In full and endless sight

 
We walk  by faith and not by sight
No gracious words we hear
Of him who spoke as none e'er spoke
Yet we believe him near

  

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A Christmas gift idea!

Looking for a gift that won't be forgotten or tossed away a few days after Christmas? 

 

Or even if your Christmas shopping is all done (good job!) you might be looking for some answers to questions about your faith: questions that have long been on your mind questions that come up in conversation; questions for which you'd like to have a few good talking points to work with.

 

Fr. Dave O'Leary, a brother priest and good friend, has just published Twelve Tough Question and a Pastor's Response (available on Amazon).  In a dozen brief chapters (each 4-9 pages long), Fr. Dave responds to real questions from real people he has met in his ministry.  And the answers are real as well: concise replies in accessible language, giving inquirers a good footing on which to base their own thinking and further reading.

 

What kind of tough issues does the author tackle?  Questions ranging from Where Do Pets Go When They Die? -to- What's the Church's Opinion on Transgender Issues?  And ten other questions (including a couple of church-state matters) that might very well come up at your dinner table on Christmas day!

 

If you or someone you know might benefit from a knowledgeable survey of some hot-button issues, then this is the book for you!  Although the book is only 74 pages long, it's probably too wide to stuff into a Christmas stocking - but far more valuable than other trinkets you might think of giving.

 

Do your family and friends (and yourself) a favor and order some copies of Twelve Tough Questions! It's a gift that will stay with you well into the new year!

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Pause for Prayer: SAINT NICHOLAS 12/6

Today (December 6) is the feast of St. Nicholas, known as a friend of the poor and a giver of gifts.  See my post from last night for much more info on Saint Nicholas!

The red-vested cleric also enjoys the lead in Benjamin Britten's cantata, Saint Nicholas. The lyrics (by Eric Crozier) tell the life and legends of Nicholas, all of which you can read about and listen to here. (Audio of a portion of the cantata follows today's Prayer below.)

Let's Pause for Prayer...

Lord, 

while I'm shopping for gifts for family and friends,
while I'm buying and hanging the Christmas lights,

while I'm splurging on parties and open-house feasts,

while I'm giving so much to so many people

    who have, already, much more than they need:
keep me mindful of your humble birth in a manger

    and kindly Saint Nick, a faithful bishop 

            and generous friend to all in need...

 

As I spend and charge 

    and take care of my own,

help me hear the cry of the poor

    and the claim they have 

        on the bounty that's mine...

       

Amen.

 

The red-vested cleric also enjoys the lead in Benjamin Britten's cantata, Saint Nicholas. The lyrics (by Eric Crozier) tell the life and legends of Nicholas, all of which you can read about and listen to here.   Here's just a portion of Britten's Saint Nicholas.  This is Part VIII in which the chorus sings of Nicholas' piety and good works.

 

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For forty years our Nicolas,
Our Prince of men, our shepherd and
Our gentle guide, walked by our side.
We turned to him at birth and death,
In time of famine and distress,
In all our grief, to bring relief.

He led us from the valleys to
The pleasant hills of grace.
He fought to fold us in from mortal sin.
O! he was prodigal of love!
A spendthrift in devotion to us all,
And blessed as he caressed.
We keep his memory alive
In legends that our children
And their children's children treasure still.

A captive at the heathen court
Wept sorely all alone.
"O Nicolas in here, my son!
and he will bring you home!"

"Fill, fill my sack with corn," he said,
"We die from lack of food!"
and from that single sack he fed
A hungry multitude.

Three daughters of a nobleman
Were doomed to shameful sin,
Till our good Bishop ransomed them
By throwing purses in.

The gates were barred,
the black flag flew,
Three men knelt by the block
But Nicolas burst in like flame,
And stayed the axe's shock!

"O help us, good Nicolas!
Our ship is full of foam!"
He walked across the waves to them
And led them safely home.

He sat among the Bishops who
Were summoned to Nicaea:
Then rising with the wrath of God
Boxed Arius's ear.

He threatened Constantine the Great
With bell and book and ban,
Till Constantine confessed his sins
Like any common man!

Let the legends that we tell,
Praise him with our prayers as well...

We keep his memory alive
In legends that our children and
Their children's children treasure still.....    

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SHOES - not stockings!

 
The custom of hanging stockings on Christmas Eve is the English adaptation of the Dutch custom of putting out shoes on the eve of the feast of the Greek saint - Nicholas! 

St. Nicholas (the fourth century bishop of Myra, a province of Asia Minor) is not only the subject of many legends, he's also the real man behind "Santa's" beard.  The red-vested cleric also enjoys the lead in Benjamin Britten's cantata, Saint Nicholas, the lyrics of which are tell the life and legends of Nicholas, all of which you can read about and listen to here.

A little more research reveals that St. Nicholas is the patron saint of:

Apothecaries, Bakers, Barrel Makers, Boatmen, Boot Blacks, Boys, Brewers, Brides, Captives, Children, Coopers, Dock Workers, Druggists, Fishermen, Greece, the Greek Catholic Church in America, Grooms, Judges, Lawsuits lost unjustly, Longshoremen, Maidens, Mariners, Merchants, Murderers, Newlyweds, Parish Clerks, Paupers, Pawnbrokers, Perfumers, Pharmacists, Pilgrims, Poor people, Portsmouth - England, Prisoners, Russia, Sailors, Scholars, Schoolchildren, Shoe Shiners, Sicily, Students, Thieves, Travelers, and Unmarried girls!

In some countries December 6 (not Christmas) is the day for gift-giving. So you might want to surprise a friend or family member with a little gift tomorrow. It doesn't need to be something you shop for, charge, and wrap in paper and ribbons - the best gifts come from the heart!

To understand the curious painting at the top of this, check out the story of how the first "Santa Claus" (SAiNT Ni'CLAS) brought gifts not down a chimney, but through a window!

And here's everything else you could ever possibly want to know about St. Nicholas!

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NIGHT PRAYER: Friday 12/5

For many years now, in Advent, I've posted Reubem Alves' reflection on hope.  Alves was a Presbyterian minister and one of the Protestant advocates of liberation theology.  These words on hope are strong and wise: they bear repeating.  (My prayer for this evening follows Reubem's text...

What is hope?
It is the presentiment that
    imagination is more real
       and reality is less real
          than it looks.

Hope is the hunch
that the overwhelming brutality of facts
that oppress and repress us
    is not the last word.

It is the suspicion that reality is more complex
    than the realists want us to believe -
that the frontiers of the possible
    are not determined by the limits of the actual -
and in a miraculous and unexplained way,
    life is opening up creative events

which will open the way
    to freedom and resurrection.

But the two – suffering and hope –
    must live from each other.
Suffering without hope
    produces resentment and despair.
But, hope without suffering
    creates illusions, naivete and drunkenness.

So let us plant dates -
even though we who plant them    

   will never eat them.*

 

We must live by the love 

   of what we will never see.
That is the secret discipline.

It is the refusal to let our creative act be dissolved
    by our need for immediate sense experience
and it is a struggled commitment
    to the future of our grandchildren.

Such disciplined hope
    is what has given prophets, 

        revolutionaries and saints,
       the courage to die for the future they envisage.
They make their own bodies
    the seed of their highest hopes.

- Ruben Alves 

*Date palms don't bear fruit

    until  7-10 years after planting!

Lord, I can be so easily weighed down

    by my struggles, my burdens, my pain,

    by the harsh realities of my daily life...

Sometimes, I fear I'll lose hope

    in you,

    in tomorrow, 

    in others,

    and in myself...

 

So I pray you'll help me trust,

help me hope

    that the peace I imagine,

    the peace I pray for,

    the peace I long for,

    the peace you promise

        is stronger and greater,

        deeper and wider,

        than any power or problem I face...

 

Let hope be my hunch, Lord:

    my hunch, my hope, that my future's not fixed

        by the scope of my present trials;

    my hunch, my hope,  that the troubles I face

        won't have the final word;

    my hunch, my hope that my sorrows and burdens 

        are truly a prelude to joy...

 

Give me hope 

    in the midst of my suffering, Lord:

        I know that's the path of your love,

        I know it's the way that leads me to you,

        I know it's the way that leads me to peace...

Help me see how my troubles prepare me today:

    for the peace your reign offers and brings,

    for the gift of your healing presence and mercy;

    and then, at last, for the harvest of hope

        my hunch proved right by your grace...

 

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. 

There Is A Hope by Stuart Townend 

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Pause for Prayer: FRIDAY 12/5

They watch for Christ

    who are sensitive, eager, 

        apprehensive in mind;

who are awake, alive, quick-sighted, 

    zealous in honoring him;

who look for him in all that happens 

    and who would not be surprised,

who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed,

    if they found that he was coming at once...

This then is to watch:

    to be detached from what is present

        and to live in what is unseen;

to live in the thought of Christ as he came once,

    and as he will come again;

to desire his second coming,

    from our affectionate and grateful remembrance 

        of his first.

-  St. John Henry Newman

Lord,

    rescue me from boredom, tedium and inertia,

        from anxiety, sorrow and fear...

 

Lord,

    relieve me of distraction, doubt and confusion,

        of disappointment, regret and indifference...

 

Lord, wake me, rouse and hearten me

    to wait, to watch, to look for you,

to anticipate your coming 

    and expect your arrival...

 

You've come into the world already, Lord,

    and into my life you'll come again 

and again and again and again,

    today, tonight and tomorrow...

 

And then next week, next month, next year

    and again at the last when the waiting's done,

when the watch is over and you call me home

    to the peace that waits for those who watch...

Amen.

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NIGHT PRAYER: Thursday 12/4

One of my favorite prayers was an alternate text found in the former Sacramentary. Alas, those alternate prayers are not to be found in the Missal we now use at Mass.  But there's no reason that we shouldn't benefit from these beautiful words tonight, here in our virtual chapel...

Father in heaven,

    our hearts desire 

        the warmth of your love

    and our minds are searching

        for the light of your Word...

 

Increase our longing for Christ our Savior

    and give us the strength to grow in love,

that the dawn of his coming 

    may find us rejoicing in his presence

        and welcoming the light of his truth...

Stir up in my heart, O Lord,

    a desire for the warmth 

        only your love can bring...

 

Inspire me, Lord,

    to find in your Word

        the gift of your truth and wisdom...

 

May tomorrow find me

    searching for you 

        in the dawn of your gracious light...       

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 not a hymn - it's from the soundtrack of the film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It's a song about transformation and about being willing to be transformed - so it's a good song for Advent...

 

The Dawn is Coming by Jose Gonzalez 

 

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There's a rhythm and rush these days
Where the lights don't move 

    and the colors don't fade
Leaves you empty with nothing but dreams
In a world gone shallow
In a world gone lean

 

Sometimes there's things a man cannot know
The gears won't turn and the leaves won't grow
There's no place to run and no gasoline
Engine won't turn and the train won't leave
Engines won't turn and the train won't leave

 

I will stay with you tonight
Hold you close 'til the morning light
In the morning watch a new day rise
We'll do whatever just to stay alive
We'll do whatever just to stay alive

 

Well the way I feel is the way I write
It isn't like the thoughts of the man who lies
There is a truth and it's on our side
Dawn is coming
Open your eyes
Look into the sun as the new days rise

 

And I will wait for you tonight
You're here forever and you're by my side
I've been waiting all my life
To feel your heart as it's keeping time
We'll do whatever just to stay alive

 

Source: PrayCatholic

 

Dawn is coming    Open your eyes
Dawn is coming    Open your eyes
Dawn is coming    Open your eyes
Dawn is coming    Open your eyes

 

Look into the sun as the new days rise

 
There's a rhythm and rush these days
Where the lights don't move 

    and the colors don't fade
Leaves you empty with nothing but dreams
In a world gone shallow
In a world gone lean
But there is a truth and it's on our side
Dawn is coming Open your eyes
Look into the sun as the new days rise

 

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Pause for Prayer: THURSDAY 12/3

Image source

Reflective background music for today's Pause for Prayer...

 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

    by The Piano Guys

 

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I wait for you, Lord
   - and I have waited for so long

      and in so many ways…

I wait to find you, to know you,
   to believe in you...

I wait for you to show yourself,

   to show me your face

      and let the light of your countenance 

        shine upon me...   

I wait for you to speak to me,

   to speak a word I understand:

      a word my heart can grasp,
      a word my heart can hold,
      a word my heart can keep,
      a word that brings me peace...

I wait to find the truth that sets me free,

   free from all that holds me fast

      in my confusion, fear and doubt…

 

I wait for you to hear my prayer 
   - and answer me...

I wait for your Spirit to move me,
   to nudge me and shake me awake;
I wait for your Spirit to stir within,
   to let me know that you're with me
      and I'm with you...

I wait to hear a word from you 

   of where to turn, what path to take,
      what choices I should make,

        what decisions I should take...

I wait for you to calm my fears,
   to soothe my anxious, lonely heart,

      to bring comfort for my troubled soul,

        to console me in my grief...

I wait for you to help me find 
   even just a little peace of mind…

 

I wait to find your presence in my daily rounds:

   in the ordinary people, times and places

        of my ordinary life each day,

    to meet you where I least expect

      but where I really need to find you...

I wait to know your mercy

   forgiving my sins, 
   cleansing of my soul,

   and refreshing my spirit...

I wait because I trust,

    I trust you'll never fail to help me start again:

        my slate wiped clean, 
        my sins absolved,
        my heart mended, healed and pardoned...

I wait for you, Lord,
   even when I'm not even sure why I still wait -

      but even then I wait some more -

for it's in the waiting that I begin 

    to see you in the dark 
        and hear you whisper in the silence...

In the waiting I begin to know 
   your presence and your face
and to feel your gentle touch

    in the care of those around me

whose hearts and hands are yours, Lord,
   whose voice and word are yours...
      

In the quiet of my Advent prayer

   I wait for you 
and I trust, I know, Lord
   that you’re waiting there for me…

Amen.

 

  

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