Third Sunday Of Advent
Worship
Lectionary Worship Aids
Series VI, Cycle A
Object:
Words Of Assurance
It will be said on that day, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."
Pastoral Prayer
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, truly we want to walk as children of light -- we want to follow Jesus. But sometimes our valleys seem so deep and dark that we despair of crawling out of them. We sometimes see the mountains as insurmountable obstacles rather than as vantage points of exhilarating beauty.
The rough places that we complain about are often of our own making. The deserts are hot and dry because we have failed to refresh ourselves at the springs of your Spirit.
Forgive, Lord, our wanderings and complainings as we welcome the liberating advent of Jesus into our lives.
God of surprise and goodness: in the commonplace, in a human child born in an animal shelter, your communication with us took on flesh and bone, lived itself out in our human history, so that we might have forever knowledge of your own self, and of your will and destiny for our human life. For the mystery and miracle of Christ's Advent, we rejoice and we thank you.
As the Christ was born of a human and was cradled in the rudeness of an animal shelter, grant again, we pray, the unexpected. May the Lord, who is the Spirit, be cradled within our hearts to be the wellspring of our inner beings. Be born, be born within us today so that we may be reborn.
O dayspring from on high, be the gift of a holy presence to strengthen the hearts of those for whom this season will not know its wished-for joy: the unemployed, and those who have no one with whom to share joy -- the sick and those who must walk the valley of the shadow; those who experience fracture in their families. Come, Holy Child, and let your presence suffuse their lives with heavenly radiance.
We pray, too, that the Spirit of Jesus Christ will have a transforming impact on our society and our world -- not only during the few weeks of the Christmas season, but throughout the year.
We lift these prayers in the name and in the Spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Benediction
May the spirit of the season be that of the Holy Spirit; and may the peace of this season be that of the Prince of Peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It will be said on that day, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."
Pastoral Prayer
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, truly we want to walk as children of light -- we want to follow Jesus. But sometimes our valleys seem so deep and dark that we despair of crawling out of them. We sometimes see the mountains as insurmountable obstacles rather than as vantage points of exhilarating beauty.
The rough places that we complain about are often of our own making. The deserts are hot and dry because we have failed to refresh ourselves at the springs of your Spirit.
Forgive, Lord, our wanderings and complainings as we welcome the liberating advent of Jesus into our lives.
God of surprise and goodness: in the commonplace, in a human child born in an animal shelter, your communication with us took on flesh and bone, lived itself out in our human history, so that we might have forever knowledge of your own self, and of your will and destiny for our human life. For the mystery and miracle of Christ's Advent, we rejoice and we thank you.
As the Christ was born of a human and was cradled in the rudeness of an animal shelter, grant again, we pray, the unexpected. May the Lord, who is the Spirit, be cradled within our hearts to be the wellspring of our inner beings. Be born, be born within us today so that we may be reborn.
O dayspring from on high, be the gift of a holy presence to strengthen the hearts of those for whom this season will not know its wished-for joy: the unemployed, and those who have no one with whom to share joy -- the sick and those who must walk the valley of the shadow; those who experience fracture in their families. Come, Holy Child, and let your presence suffuse their lives with heavenly radiance.
We pray, too, that the Spirit of Jesus Christ will have a transforming impact on our society and our world -- not only during the few weeks of the Christmas season, but throughout the year.
We lift these prayers in the name and in the Spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Benediction
May the spirit of the season be that of the Holy Spirit; and may the peace of this season be that of the Prince of Peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
