Quotable
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A SEASONAL PRAYER FOR ADVENT
Thanks be to you, O God, that life is
marked by celebration, that the ordinariness
of day-to-day life is broken by occasions of
festivity and giving and togetherness.
Thanks be to you, O God, that life is
also marked by transition; that we can now
leave the old and look to the new with some
renewed sense of hope and expectation.
Thanks be to you, O God, for life in
relationship with family and with friends,
and all thanks that we are changed in this
life together, that faith is called out of
us, that purpose is revived, that grace is
extended.
All thanks to you, O God, for each
occasion when life is so good, so abundant,
so full of love that we wonder if our
experience can contain it.
Amidst our thanksgiving hear also our
intercession, for life too is tenuous,
difficult, ambiguous.
We are hoping that incarnation is still
a reality, that you are still involved in
our lives and in our world. We are summoned
to celebrate your coming, yet it is your
absence we so often experience.
Where are you when our talk of love and
freedom is belied in lives of insensitivity
and smallness? Where are you when the desire
to be accepted or the need to get ahead
makes us hurt those for whom we care or
makes us oblivious to the feelings of those
about us? Where are you when despite our
wealth and good intentions we cannot keep
the very residents of our own city clothed
and fed and housed in a decent place?
We do not know; we are not sure. Life is
not settled, and so we must, even now, hope.
So then, hear our prayers for those whose
hope is so small, so petty, so sensible.
Hear our prayers for those for whom the need
to control life makes faith imperceptible.
Hear our prayers for all who are victims in
this world—victims of senseless aggression
or of prejudice, victims of society's
misplaced values or of their own poor
judgments. Hear our prayers for those whose
experiences of loss or disappointment or
disillusionment make life painful,
especially amidst days of celebration.
Now give us courage, courage to forgive
ourselves, courage to live gracefully amidst
uncertainties, courage to let go and live.
Continue to save us in and through this
Christ of incarnation. Amen
-----James C Leach, in
Pulpit Digest, NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 1988 I
(477) p. 57-58.
