First Sunday of Advent :: Readings, Reflections & a Candle Litany

Scriptures readings for the first Sunday of Advent from New Revised Common Lectionary: HERE

A couple Advent reflections worth checking out this first week of Advent…
"Advent/Darkness" by Christena Cleveland

“Tireless Hope” by Andrew Ulasich


Candle Litany for Advent

God our life and our breath.
We witness your coming
In the humility of service,
The poor and marginalized,
The new born child,
In the heart of each person we meet,
And in the beauty of all creation.

We watch, wait and witness the mystery of your conception in us,
(The candle is lit)
We are waiting
We are watching
We are witnessing

~ Taken from:
http://re-worship.blogspot.com.ar/2014/11/advent-candle-litany.html
Originally posted by James Hawes, on Sunday Papers. http://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/

A Thanksgiving Liturgy & a Prayer from Walter Brueggemann...

A Thanksgiving Liturgy from Christine Sine on Godspace blog…HERE.

Thanksgiving Prayer from Walter Brueggemann

The witnesses tell of your boundless generosity,
and their telling is compelling to us:
You give your world to call the worlds into being;
You give your sovereign rule to emancipate the slaves and the oppressed;
You give your commanding fidelity to form your own people;
You give your life for the life of the world...
broken bread that feeds,
poured out wine and binds and heals.
You give...we receive...and are thankful.

We begin this day in gratitude,
thanks that is a match for your self-giving,
gratitude in gifts offered,
gratitude in tales told,
gratitude in lives lived.

Gratitude willed, but no so readily lived,
held back by old wounds turned to powerful resentment,
slowed by early fears become vague anxiety,
restrained by self-sufficiency in a can-do arrogance,
blocked by amnesia unable to recall gifts any longer.

Do this yet. Create innocent spaces for us this day
for the gratitude we intend.

In thankfulness,
we will give,
we will tell,
we will live,
your gift through us to gift the world. Amen

~ Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (Fortress Press, 2002)

Prayer from Walter Brueggemann

Blown by God towards newness

The news is that God’s wind is blowing.
It may be a breeze that
cools and comforts.
It may be a gust that
summons you to notice.
It may be a storm that blows you where you have
never been before.

Whatever the wind is in your life,
pay attention to it …
and the blessing of God,
Father, Son and Spirit,
will abide with you always.

~ Walter Brueggemann
(Prayers for a Privileged People
Abingdon Press, 2008)

A Collection of Prayers for the New Year :: 2014

I recently posted a couple of prayers that personally resonate with me as I begin the new year. If you missed them, you can check them out here…

The Singing Bowl
A Sonnet by Malcolm Guite

And so we gather the scattered pieces…
By Jan L. Richardson

In addition, over the past few years I have shared several prayers for the new year on the Prayers & Creeds blog. You can check them out by clicking on the prayer below.

New Year’s Eve Prayer

A Sonnet for the New Year by Malcolm Guite

Celtic New Year’s Prayer – The Opening Door

New Year’s Prayer by Ted Loder

New Year’s Prayer by Christine Sine

Help Me to Believe in Beginnings by Ted Loder

Prayer of John of the Cross

“O Antiphons” Begin December 17

Since the eighth century the O Antiphons have been used by many liturgical Christian traditions during vespers the last seven days of Advent (December 17-23). These O Antiphons became the basis for the popular Christmas carol, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

“Their predominant theme is messianic, stressing the hope of the Savior's coming. Jesus is invoked by various titles, mainly taken from the prophet Isaiah. The sequence progresses historically, from the beginning, before creation, to the very gates of Bethlehem….In their structure, each of the seven antiphons follows the same pattern, resembling a traditional liturgical prayer.  Each O Antiphon begins with an invocation of the expected Messiah, followed by praise of him under one of his particular titles. Each ends with a petition for God's people, relevant to the title by which he is addressed, and the cry for him to ‘Come’.”
(Jeanne Kun, “Praising the Names of Jesus: The Antiphons of Advent”)

You can read the entire description of the “O Antiphons” by Jeanne Kun...HERE.

A couple years ago I posted an “O Antiphons Litany” for Advent on the Prayers and Creeds blog. You can check it out...HERE.

Other Resources:
Extended liturgies for the O Antiphons

The Antiphons of Advent (Readings & meditations for each day)

Contemporary translation on Everyday Liturgy 

A Collection of Advent Prayers

This will be my sixth year posting weekly prayers on Prayers & Creeds. I always enjoy finding new prayers for the season of Advent to share on this blog. Once again, here are links to some of my favorite Advent prayers posted in years past. Just click in the prayer…

A Sonnet for the New Year by Malcolm Guite

Advent Prayer by Ted Loder

Awaiting the Christ Child ~ Esperando el Niño Jesús

Advent Prayer for Hope

Prayer for Welcoming Advent

Advent Collect for Southern Hemisphere

Advent Prayer from Walter Brueggemann

Advent Prayer from Henri Nouwen

Awaiting the Christ from Christine Sine

Hope Revived

Advent Prayer from Advent in Art

O Oriens from Madeleine L’Engle

O Antiphons – An Advent Litany

A Prayer and an Icon

"Jesus and Abba Menas. A 6th-century icon from the Monastery of Bawit in Middle Egypt, currently at the Louvre. It is one of the oldest icons in existence."

A print of this icon sits in the front of our class this week.

A Prayer of the Program in Christian Spirituality Community

Creating God:

you stretch wide the heavens

and open the human heart

to receive more and more of your love.

Your Spirit has enlarged our spirits

by drawing us together into this community

of prayer and listening,

hospitality and learning,

compassion and justice –

and we are grateful.

Keep stretching us by your grace

so that we may see, hear, and embrace

the new things you are doing.

Free us to be who you want us to be

so that we may love and serve one another,

our families and communities,

this seminary and the church,

the creation itself,

and you who are within and beyond everything.

We lean on your wisdom and grace

embodied so richly in Jesus Christ

in whose name we pray. Amen.

Prayer Books for the New Year

For the past four years I have posted weekly prayers on the blog Prayers & Creeds (http://prayersandcreeds.wordpress.com/). While I often come across the prayers on various websites and blogs, many come from various prayer books that I have collected in recent years. I thought I would post the titles and links, in case anyone is looking for a prayer book for the new year. Most are available in Kindle versions, as well. Please post any additional recommendations in comments to this post! Just click on the book title below.

Yours Is the Day, Lord, Yours Is the Night: A Morning and Evening Prayer Book

Edited by Jeanie and David Gushee 

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals 

By Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Enuma Okoro

Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings From the Northumbria Community

Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle 

By Ted Loder

Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann 

By Walter Brueggemann

Prayers for a Privileged People 

By Walter Brueggemann

The Book of a Thousand Prayers

Compiled by Angela Ashwin

Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits 
Compiled by Michael Harter

For those on Facebook here is a great page of prayers from Christine Sine..."LIKE" it! 

Light for the Journey

Prayers for Advent

This will be my fifth year posting weekly prayers on Prayers & Creeds. This year I am posting prayers that go along with the Revised Common Lectionary each week of Advent. Each week also includes a link to Art that goes with the readings. You can check it out here:
Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Advent

Below the prayer links some of my favorite Advent prayers posted in years past. Just click on the prayer title...

Advent Prayer by Ted Loder

O Antiphons – An Advent Litany

Awaiting the Christ Child ~ Esperando el Niño Jesús

Advent Prayer for Hope

Prayer for Welcoming Advent

Advent Collect for Southern Hemisphere

Advent Prayer from Walter Brueggemann

Advent Prayer from Henri Nouwen

Awaiting the Christ 

Hope Revived

Fresh Vision

These past few months during the church season of Ordinary Time I have been using the book At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time by Sarah Arthur. You can read more about the book…HERE. The passages of poetry, prayers, fiction, and scripture have been a perfect fit. I have been challenged on the idea of “slow reading,” which is especially necessary when reading poetry. I will be writing more about that soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a poem and a prayer from the book that resonated with me this week. These passages from the section titled “Fresh Vision” are encouraging as I continue to embrace this year of “Patient Trust”.

Morning Reflections

Enuma Okoro

What is this unfolding, this slow-

going unraveling of gift held

in hands open

to the wonder and enchantment of it all?

What is this growing, this rare

showing, like blossoming

of purple spotted forests

by roadsides grown weary with winter months?

Seasons affected, routinely disordered

by playful disturbances of divine glee

weaving through limbs with

sharpened shards of mirrored light,

cutting dark spaces, interlacing creation,

commanding life with whimsical delight.

What is this breaking, this hopeful

re-making, shifting stones, addressing dry bones,

dizzying me with blessings,

intercepting my grieving

and raising the dead all around me?

Lord, purge our eyes to see

Lord, purge our eyes to see

Within the seed a tree

Within the glowing egg a bird,

Within the shroud a butterfly:

Till taught by such, we see

Beyond all creatures Thee;

And hearken for Thy tender word,

And hear it, “Fear not: it is I.”

~ Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Feast Day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

The First Principle and Foundation
St. Ignatius begins his Spiritual Exercises with the below.
(Paraphrased by David L. Fleming, S.J.)

For more Ignatian Prayers check out Prayers & Creeds blog....HERE.

The Goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God’s life
to flow into us without limit.

All the things in this world are gifts from God,
Presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God
Insofar as they help us to develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives,
They displace God
And so hinder our growth toward our goal.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
Before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice
And are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
Wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us
A deeper response to our life in God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads
To God’s deepening his life in me.

Ignatian Prayers & Spirituality in July

In honor of the feast day of Saint Ignatius on July 31, the website Ignatian Spirituality is celebrating by highlighting a selection of articles, blog posts, and videos to help you explore the riches of Ignatian spirituality. You can click on the banner above to explore the daily offerings this July.

 I also share a selection of Ignatain prayers I have posted on Prayers & Creeds these past few years. These are either classic Ignatian prayers, prayers by Jesuits, or Ignatian-inspired prayers. You can check them out by clicking...HERE.

Or you can click on each individual prayer below. I will be posting additional Ignatian prayers throughout July.

The Examen of Consciousness

El Examen de Conciencia ~ Una oración a Dios

Anima Christi (English & Spanish)
A Favorite Prayer of Saint Ignatius

Anima Christi
Rephrasing of this ancient prayer by David L. Fleming, SJ

Prayer of Gratitude

Ignatian Prayer of Gratitude

Ignatian Prayer for Detachment

A Prayer for Spiritual Freedom

Passion Week Hymn ~ In Love for Me

In Love for Me

This is my body, broken for you,
bringing you wholeness, making you free.
Take it and eat it, and when you do,
Do it in love for me.

This is my blood poured out for you,
bringing forgiveness, making you free.
Take it and drink it, and when you do,
do it in love for me.

Back to my Father soon I will go.
Do not forget me; then you will see
I am still with you, and you will know
you’re very close to me.

Filled with my Spirit, how you will grow!
You are my branches; I am the tree.
If you are faithful, others will know
you are alive in me.

Love one another – I have loved you,
and I have shown you how to be free;
serve one another, and when you do,
do it in love for me.

Vv. 1-2 Jimmy Owens
Vv. 3-5 Damian Lundy, based on John 14-16

Taken from: In Celebration of Love - The Washing of the Feet (The Art and Inspiration of Sieger Koder), Pauline Books &  Media, 1997.

Traditional Irish Blessing

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! I stumbled upon this Celtic Blessing this morning (Thanks Jamie & Missional blog!). Good words of blessing and prayer for one another!

 

Traditional Irish Blessing
I wish you not a path devoid of clouds,
nor a life on a bed of roses,
not that you might never need regret,
nor that you shall never feel pain.
No, that is not my wish for you.
My wish for you is that you might be brave in times of trial
when others lay crosses upon your shoulders.
When mountains must be climbed
and chasms are to be crossed;
when hope scarce can shine through.
That every gift God gave you might grow along with you.
And let you give the gift of joy to all who care for you.
That you may always have a friend who is worth that name.
Who you can trust, and who helps you in times of sadness.
Who will defy the storms of daily life at your side.
One more wish I have for you:
That in every hour of joy and pain you may feel God close to you.
This is my wish for you and for all who care for you.
This is my hope for you, now and forever.

Prayers for 2012

As I begin 2012 there are a few prayers and quotes of inspiration that I plan to keep close at hand these first weeks of the new year. Thanks to my friends in my blogosphere who have shared them.

Help Me to Believe in Beginnings...HERE
Posted on Prayers & Creeds. Shared by my friend Ben.

Prayer for 2012...HERE
Shared by Christine Sine on Godspace.

Orthodox Morning Prayer from the Elders of Optino...HERE
Posted on Prayers & Creeds. Shared by my friend Adam.

And...for my Spanish speaking friends, this quote from Eduardo Galeano. Shared by my friend Carolina.

Ojalá seamos dignos de la desesperada esperanza. 

Ojalá podamos tener el coraje de estar solos y la valentía de arriesgarnos a estar juntos, porque de nada sirve un diente fuera de la boca, ni un dedo fuera de la mano. 

Ojalá podamos ser desobedientes, cada vez que recibimos órdenes que humillan nuestra conciencia o violan nuestro sentido común. 

Ojalá podamos ser tan porfiados para seguir creyendo, contra toda evidencia, que la condición humana vale la pena, porque hemos sido mal hechos, pero no estamos terminados.

Ojalá podamos ser capaces de seguir caminando los caminos del viento, a pesar de las caídas y las traiciones y las derrotas, porque la historia continúa, más allá de nosotros, y cuando ella dice adiós, está diciendo: hasta luego.

Ojalá podamos mantener viva la certeza de que es posible ser compatriota y contemporáneo de todo aquel que viva animado por la voluntad de justicia y la voluntad de belleza, nazca donde nazca y viva cuando viva, porque no tienen fronteras los mapas del alma ni del tiempo. 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Today we pray the final of the O Antiphons….O Emmanuel, God with Us, Come! 

O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people. Come and set us free, Lord our God

“This last Veni, the final O Come, summarizes our entire Advent journey: its prayer, longing, and constant yearning for salvation. Come, Lord, set free the people whom you love. This last verse of the antiphon gives the necessary incentive we need for the last miles of our journey. A little bit longer, and then tomorrow his glory shall be revealed to us! “Veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Dues noster.” 

A Monastery Journey to Christmas by Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette

O Emmanuel (December 23 entry)

The O Antiphons became the basis for the Christmas carol, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Today I posted the lyrics on Prayers & Creeds…HERE.

Here’s my favorite version of the hymn from “Advent Songs” by Sojourn Music…

Prayers for Advent

This will be my fourth year posting weekly prayers on Prayers & Creeds. Today I posted my first Advent prayer of the season on the Prayers & Creeds blog. Below the prayer are additional links to some of my favorite Advent prayers posted in years past.

Advent Prayer for Hope

Lord Jesus Christ,

who is, who was, and who is to come,

we pray for the virtue of hope,

that amidst the trials and difficulties

of this world,

we may keep our hearts fixed

upon you, who reigns over the cosmos.

May your grace enliven us,

strengthen us,

and defend us,

as we await your coming in glory. Amen

~David Bennett

(Taken from: http://www.churchyear.net/adventprayers.html)

Prayer for Welcoming Advent

Advent Collect for Southern Hemisphere

Advent Prayer from Walter Brueggemann

Advent Prayer from Henri Nouwen

Awaiting the Christ 

Hope Revived

Prayers of Thanksgiving & Gratitude

Click here for a collection of prayers posted on Prayers & Creeds blog...Prayers of Thanksgiving & Gratitude

Prayer of Gratitude

As I was reflecting on gratitude for my recent This Ignatian Life blog post, I stumbled upon this prayer of gratitude...

Intimate knowledge. 
That's what I ask you for, Lord.
I want that insight, that understanding, that knowledge
that will be about our intimacy.

Many gifts.
Let me count the ways you have loved me.
The gifts of your love.
All that you have given me.
All that I am.
I so often look at my shortcomings.
Let me see the gifts.
All of them.

Filled with gratitude. 
Fill me, Lord, with gratitude.
Let my heart,
sometimes filled with so much else,
be filled with thanksgiving.
Give me the feelings of gratitude,
of a grateful heart.

Joy, freedom, peace, generosity.
In all things love and serve.
Let the overflowing gratitude in my heart
touch all the things and people in my life.
Every thought, word and deed.
Every hurt, every slight, every loss.
Every reaction and response.
Every opportunity and choice.
Every offering of myself.
In all,
let me love and serve you.

Amen.

Taken from:
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/p-33-iask.html
(Author not found.)

Prayers from Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi Feast Day is coming October 4. Here is a collection of links to prayers from Saint Francis posted on the Prayer & Creeds blog. Just click on the prayer.

Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace ~

Señor, Hazme un Instrumento de Tu Paz

A Benediction of Saint Francis

Prayer for Doing God’s Will

Prayer for a Rich Spiritual Life

Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer

Prayer of Thanksgiving