Advent prayers
Pause, reflect and pray with us in preparation for Christmas.
As the winter months approach, refugees like Omar in Lebanon face the challenges of cold weather
Stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
We might be reaching the end of the calendar year, but today is the very beginning of the Church’s year. As always, we enter the Advent season looking ahead. We prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ at Christmas, and we wait in hope and expectation for the day when he will come again.
As our gospel today makes clear, we do not know when that might be, and life will largely carry on as normal. People will go about their daily lives, eating and drinking, working and celebrating, because none of us know when the moment will come.
But as Christians this is not a time of passive waiting; we must stay awake and be found ready, whenever the time arrives. We are called in the first and second readings to walk in the light of the Lord. This means changing our behaviour, working for peace, putting aside anger and jealousy.
It is time for us to be good neighbours to one another and to build a better world, one that reflects the vision of God’s kingdom as we joyfully await its coming.
Advent prayer
God of all,
fill us with joy and expectation
in this Advent season,
and move us to share our hope with others,
by being good neighbours,
that we might be found ready,
when you come in glory.
Amen.
Act
We pray today that we may be found ready and waiting when the time comes.