Prayers for the Season
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Advent Candle-Lighting
Prayers of the Day
Eucharistic Prayer A
Eucharistic Prayer B
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Advent Candle-Lighting
by the Rev. Justin Kosec
A note on the rite
In this Rite for the Advent Wreath, the candle flame represents the goodness and new life God brings to the human experience. The candles mark the places or people or days that await this goodness. The balance between those candles that are lit and those unlit remind us that God’s work in this world remains incomplete, even as it visibly breaks into our world. How might the structure of your Advent wreath–the shape or color of its candles; the housing in which the wreath sits; or the accoutrements around the wreath–help convey this meaning?
NB: We encourage you to download the Word Doc compiling our resources for the season (which you can do for free! Simply subscribe to our mailing list.) to see these liturgical texts. Here, line breaks that the authors originally intended that you see have been taken out for space and web legibility.
The Rite
A verse from the song of the day is sung.
Each week, as we approach the Advent of our Savior Jesus Christ on Christmas, we acknowledge what God’s people have always known: Even when God is active in this world, hope is a work in progress.
Each candle on our wreath represents a person or a place or a moment in time that still awaits God’s goodness.
Yet we are witnesses to God’s work in this world. Just as a small spark can give new life to a dead wick, we believe the fire of God’s presence can ignite God’s purpose in this place.
God, through your love,
a familiar light can banish the fear of the other;
Through your love,
the warmth of good cheer can extinguish cold-hearted injustice.
Through your love,
the song of faith can rekindle hope for the hopeless.
We light this candle as a small act of our great anticipation.
The candle is lit.
As the candle is lit:
someone reads ONE VERSE of the day’s hymn;
OR prays the Prayer of the Day.
Following the reading of the VERSE or PRAYER, the congregation is exhorted as follows:
Week one:
Many candles yet remain. Each reminding us that God’s healing has not yet fully spread throughout the earth. How long must this world wait to see God’s glory?
You are God’s people, called to serve this world and to let your light shine. Let the fire of justice burn in your heart, for the dead still cry for the flicker of new life we carry.
The middle weeks:
Each candle we light is a sign: in a world so thirsty for mercy, God’s love spreads like fire. Each unlit candle remind us that God’s healing has not yet fully spread throughout the earth. How long must this world wait to see God’s glory?
You are God’s people, called to serve this world and to let your light shine. Let the fire of justice burn in your heart, for the dead still cry for the flicker of new life we carry.
Last week:
Each week these candles have reminded us that God counts every heart that waits for mercy. One flame at a time, God’s work spreads through this world. The flame builds like whispers that becomes a rush; notes that become a chord; droplets that become a river.
We are like these candles, baptized children of God who shine together until the day God’s goodness shines in every place under heaven.
Additionally, the rite may be concluded by singing a verse from the song of the day.
Prayers of the Day
November 7:
God of all who hunger, feed all who need food today. And whether what we have to offer is two coins, or a full meal, or a little time, or a full-time job, help us to offer it willingly, and with hope! That no matter how small the act, it might bring a bit of your justice, and keep us hungry for more. Amen.
November 14:
What a morning, O God, to sing your praise! Yet what grievous mourning we feel to know there are those who have rejected your goodness. What a good morning when we give thanks for your blessings in our lives. What terrible mourning we feel for those without food, or family, or love. What a good morning it will be when you forgive every sin and soothe the sting of death once and for all. In your name we pray, Amen.
November 21:
Into the roar of warring nations, into the prattle of divided politics, into the whispers of desperate families, divided friends, and desolate hearts, you speak your Word: “Peace.”
Peace that passes all understanding, peace that flows from the heart of God, come quickly, and reconcile your people. Amen.
November 28:
Lord, we are watching you. Like the high-schooler watching the minute hand at the end of the schoolday’s last class; like the hourly worker checking her watch before shift change; like the child waiting for the little wooden bird to sound its coo-coo from the clock; our eyes are fixed on you. Give us a sign that it’s time. It’s time, God, for you to show up. Time for you to free us. Time for our redemption. Amen.
December 5:
God who is already among us, yet is the One for whom we wait, help us to prepare for you. In our hearts, in our homes, in our world, let us lift what is low and smooth what is rough, so that for each person we meet, your presence is so apparent they can’t help but sing for joy. Amen.
December 12:
O Christ, as we wait for you we feel the pressures of the world warning of want, sanctioning self-interest, obscuring compassion. Strengthen us to uproot greed
and allow faith, hope, and love to flourish. As we prepare your highway, let us see you
walking our way. Amen.
December 19:
O God, you are great! You have cast down tyrants, wiped away the tears of the poor, and lit the fires of justice. From age to age, your promise has held us bound even when the world is shaken. Draw near, O Dawn of Righteousness. Answer our expectation. Turn this waiting world. Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer A
by the Rev. Victoria Larson
A note on the rite:
This Thanksgiving corresponds closely to the themes of “My Heart Shall Sing:” the language evokes music and song, as well as endings and beginnings.
The Rite:
DIALOG
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Lift up your hearts! We lift them to the Lord!
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise.
PREFACE
It is indeed right to give you thanks and praise, Composer of the Universe, through Jesus Christ, your only Son. His victory song has shattered death and resounds to every corner of creation, filling us with the hope for his coming again. Even as we wait for that trumpet blast, we join our voices with earth and sea, and their chorus of creatures; with angels bands and rolling spheres; with saints who stand by a crystal sea, in one unending hymn:
The congregation sings or says the Sanctus.
THANKSGIVING
Great God, Alpha and Omega, in the songs of Moses and Miriam, in the canticles of Mary and Zechariah, you tell us how your chosen endings harmonize with new beginnings: where the hungry are fed, the powerful are cast down, the imprisoned are freed, and the world is turned.
In the cacophony of this and every age, your people have heard snatches of that divine melody. We have tried to join, but our voices tremble with fear, and sin, and failure.
So in the fullness of time you sent to us your own Son, Jesus Christ, whose birth was announced by a choir of angels, whose life reverberated with healing and liberation, and who opened the gates of death so that we could open our lips at last and join in your redeeming song.
In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.
Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them to drink saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me.
Remembering his life, death, and resurrection, we proclaim the mystery of our faith with audacious expectation:
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Filled with confidence in his promise, we dare to look for signs of his coming and of his presence already here: in bread and wine, in this gathered Body, in this yearning world, in this meal, where he is Host and Guest. Come, Lord Jesus!
Come, Lord Jesus!
And come, Holy Spirit, to prepare his way. Straighten what is crooked in our hearts and in our world. Bless these gifts and let us taste the glory of God. Come, Holy Spirit!
Come, Holy Spirit!
All honor and glory are yours, God in Trinity and Unity, God of songs and silences, God of beginnings and endings, from now until the end of time. Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer B
by the Rev. Victoria Larson
A note on the rite:
This shorter Thanksgiving riffs on Mary’s Magnificat. It is particularly appropriate for December 19th, but can be used at any time in the Advent season.
The Rite:
DIALOG
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Lift up your hearts! We lift them to the Lord!
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise.
PREFACE
It is right, our duty and our delight to give thanks and praise to you, Lord God, through Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, whom the angel announced, whom Mary embraced, whose impossibility you made possible. And so, with prophets old and new, with shining stars and leaping seas, with heavenly hosts armed with adoration, we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
The congregation sings or says the Sanctus.
THANKSGIVING
Mighty One, you have done great things for us, and holy is your name! From generation to generation, you have shown mercy to those who call on you. The strength of your arm has scattered the proud and cast down kings. The opening of your hand has filled the hungry with bread and with justice. In the fullness of time, you kept the promise you made to our ancestors, giving to us your own Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.
Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them to drink saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me.
United at this table, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts, O God, And send her into and through this gathered people, that, fed and strengthened with this holy food, we may magnify your presence in our world, until Christ comes again in glory.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
We await his advent, O God, with all the saints of every time and place. Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever. Amen.
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