Third Week Of Advent
Saturday
Hymn
Do you find yourself bogged down and your days filled with
business?
Are you weary after a long year and the numerous problems and
difficulties that came your way?
Let us listen to the Prophet Zephaniah who brings us the tidings of joy.
Reading: Zeph 3: 14-18
Silence
Joy is the refusal to give into pessimism, dismay, gloom or
despair; a refusal above all, to give in to any kind of defeatism.
When we stand in love of God, every cell in our body jumps for
joy. This is how God means us to live, intoxicated in love and joy. Through our
joy, God’s joy is radiated in the world. The joy of human being is the joy of
God and the joy of God is the joy of human being.
Let us live happily without hate, in a world where people sow
hatred and reap the harvest of war. Let us live joyfully, without simmering in
our past hurtful memories. Let us live happily in good health, transcending our
adversities.
Pause
We shall now hold our hands and sing joyfully as we advance to
meet the one who brings joyful tidings.
Hymn: Spirit of Joy exceeding all joy…
Sunday
Hymn:
Let us listen to a conversation between God and a human person.
GOD: Hallo, you called me?
H. Person: Called you? No! Who is this?
GOD: This is God. I heard your prayers for wisdom. So I thought I
would enlighten you.
H. Person: O God, actually I am a bit confused. I don’t exactly
know what I want in life. Can you O God suggest some ways to live my life
fruitfully. Can you give some clarity for some of the problems in life? Tell
me, why has life become so complicated? Why are we constantly unhappy?
GOD: Your today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.
You are worrying because worrying has become a habit. So you are not happy.
H. Person: But how can we not worrying when there is so much
uncertainties?
GOD: Uncertainties inevitable, but worrying is optional.
H. Person: Frankly in the midst of so many problems, we do not
know where we are heading.
GOD: If you look outside, you will not know where you are
heading. Look inside. Looking outside you dream; looking inside you awake! Eyes
provide sight; heart provides insight!
Silence
Hymn: Be still and know that I am God…
Reading: Prov 8: 10-12
God of our life, grant us the serenity to accept the things we
cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the
difference. God of our life, living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a
time, in your presence may we understand the true meaning of your birth.
Hymn:
Monday
Hymn:
Commentator: I am called to be a mystic and a prophet. My call
challenges me to look in to the realities of my country in which I live.
(Please modify the following according to the country in which you live)
Reader I
In a country of plenty, millions of people go hungry daily. More
than 830 millions live on less than Rs. 20 a day. 18,000 children die daily as
a direct or indirect consequence of under nutrition. 75.5 millions do not have
housing facilities. Every sixth death of a female infant in India is due to
neglect and discrimination. This amounts to 3,00,000 girls per year. More than
half the employable force is unemployed.
Commentator: This is my India, the land to which I must give
Jesus; and how can I do it?
Pause
To be questing for God is to be questing for justice and truth.
To be questing for ministry requires us to hold for the highest standard of
integrity. Yes, we are called to be dangerous women sent from the empty tomb
with fire in our hearts and a life-giving message on our minds.
Reading: Jer 23: 5-8
Prayer:
O God, how can I pray to you?
I call you the King of Glory, but what I see is the poverty of the people.
I call you the ‘Lord of Mercy and Compassion’, but what I notice is the
suffering millions.
I call you ‘God of Justice’, but what I see is injustice inflicted on many.
I call you ‘Father’ and what do I do?
I by-pass the needy, I fight, I deceive and I accuse.
I use every means to get my way, I am afraid to pray.
You, who are revealed as justice, love and mercy, seem to stay far away.
Come to us, O Lord, and show us the way. Amen.
Hymn: PL 3 or 27 or J.L N 27
Tuesday
Hymn:
Every warrior of light has felt afraid of going in to battle.
Every warrior of light has at some time in the past lied or betrayed someone.
Every warrior of light has trodden a path that was not his. Every warrior of
light has said ‘yes’, when she wanted to say ‘no’.
In this advent season, we wait for a warrior of light who made a difference,
who fought the battle with undaunted courage, who never lied or betrayed. He is
the way, the truth and the life-the ‘Star of Bethlehem’.
Reading: Num 24:1-7; 17
O Star of Bethlehem,
When all our dreams come crushing down raise up our hope to look
up to you!
When friends cannot be found and there is no one to comfort,
deepen our faith to trust in you!
When darkness comes and fear fills our hearts, give us the
courage to follow you!
Hymn: N 32. To look for a star in the night
Wednesday
Hymn:
God’s love is tireless. He thirsts for each one of us, overlooks
prejudices and past histories. God purifies our memories of the past. He begs,
takes initiative and crosses boundaries –a God who is with us, Immanuel.
Reading: Is 7: 10-14
God who is with us with a passionate love for his people, invites us to have a
passion for him and for his people. He invites us to cross the boundaries of
our past ways of seeing and past ways of relating in order to overcome our
fears and prejudices.
Pause
Prayer
O God, Immanuel, God with us, give us a new consciousness to be
women with a passion for you. Take us to the place, to the place where we dare
to cross the boundaries. Take us to the space, where nothing is. Take us to the
empty space where all is possible, where you are with us and we are in you in
the bond of love.
Hymn:
Thursday
Listen, my friend, this road is the heart opening,
kissing his feet, resistance broken, tears all night.
If we could reach the Lord through immersion in water,
I would have asked to be born a fish in this life.
If we could reach Him through nothing but berries and wild nuts
then surely the saints would have been monkeys when they came from the womb!
If we could reach him by munching lettuce and dry leaves
then the goats would surely get to the Holy One before us!
If the worship of stone statues could bring us all the way,
I would have adored a granite mountain years ago.
Pause
I slept, but my heart was awake. Hark! My beloved is knocking.
Let me listen to his voice.
Reading: Song of Sol. 2: 8-14
Commentary:
Listen, my friend, this road is the heart opening,
kissing his feet, resistance broken, tears all night.
If we could reach the Lord through immersion in water,
I would have asked to be born a fish in this life.
If we could reach Him through nothing but berries and wild nuts
then surely the saints would have been monkeys when they came from the womb!
If we could reach him by munching lettuce and dry leaves
then the goats would surely get to the Holy One before us!
If the worship of stone statues could bring us all the way,
I would have adored a granite mountain years ago.
“Come Spouse of Christ”, we will be told at the eternal banquet.
Will we be ready? Our bridegroom is a jealous lover!
Prayer:
Unbreakable, O Lord,
Is the love
That binds me to You:
Like a diamond,
It breaks the hammer that strikes it.
My heart goes into You
As the polish goes into the gold.
As the lotus lives in its water,
I live in You.
Like the bird
That gazes all night
At the passing moon,
I have lost myself dwelling in You.
Hymn: There is a longing in me …or D132
Friday
We wait for a God who sides with the poor, for he is the God of
the anawim. He makes things happen, when human understanding stands still, and
possibilities are not in the scene. Let us recall to our mind, the song of
liberation, people have sung from ages past, for he is a God who brings a
reversal of order.
Reading: I Sam 2: 1-8
Our prophetic call leads us to make a deliberate choice to enter into the world
of the despised, to venture in to joint actions to challenge the structural
injustice in our society.
How can we participate in God’s mission of undoing the ‘old world’ into ‘new’?
Pause
Prayer
Lord, we believe that you are everywhere present. We believe that
your presence is specially found in the poor, the needy, the fatherless, or
motherless, orphan and the sick. May we so empty ourselves this advent that we
may look up on them with your eyes. Open our eyes to the burdens and weariness
that they must bear without consolation. Above all let us recognize your
poverty in theirs and in the lines of their faces the furrows of your
countenance – you who became poor for us. Amen.
Hymn; Q 4, or D 121