God whose Spirit interrupted Mary with the surprise of a Savior, startle us yet again this Christmas with your joy. When we feel the trappings of this holiday will unfold just as they have before, or when we long with nostalgia for the holidays as they once were, remind us that you are always at work, doing a new thing among us. Make us so eager to draw near to you that we cherish the Spirit’s interruptions as divine disclosures full of your mercy. Hold us close that we might be filled with awe and wonder of the coming Christ.
Come, Lord Jesus.
You are our Love.
God who waited in the womb of Mary, encourage our own waiting this Advent with the intention and intimacy and growth and mystery of yours. When silent seasons leave us despairing, abandoning our bodies and souls because of the grind, the fear, the neverending need, the indifference, remind us that your son Jesus was profoundly interdependent. Keep us vulnerable like Jesus. Remind us of our mutuality with you and one another. Make our waiting meaningful. Stir within us as you did within Mary. Grow our love, our hope, our peace, our joy.
Come, Lord Jesus.
You are our Love.
God who gave Mary a song of justice to sing, place that same song on our lips. Turn our lusting eyes away from the successes of this world that have us longing to be strong and powerful and rich, and direct them instead to the lowly and the hungry. Be near to your children who are disrupted by war or horror, those empty of sustenance and full of despair. Stir within us an unquenchable compassion for the children of Gaza, the widows of Ukraine, the mountain folk of the Appalachians, and all who ache with displacement and disaster.
Come, Lord Jesus.
You are our Love.
Mothering God, as St. Augustine once said, your “truth, by which the world is held together, has sprung from the earth, in order to be carried in a woman’s arms.” Come close where relationships have fractured and the fabric of life together has torn. Give wholeness to those who are sick and suffering, those who are held tight in the grip of addiction or isolation, those who suffer at the hands of another. Remind us again and again the promise of that holy night we long for, that in all things, in all times, in all seasons, to all people, you came and dwelled with us, full of grace and truth.
We pray all these things in the name of Love made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us how to pray, saying…
Inspired by:
Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human Debie Thomas, A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity
Padraig O’Tuama, Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love.
Samuel Wells and Abigail Kocher, Shaping the Prayers of the People: The Art of Intercession