AN ADVENT PRAYER

"O Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, King of kings & Lord of lords, the Son of the living God, Son of David, come. Come now to Your Church that You have purchased with Your blood. Come with Your gracious presence, that we may rejoice in You. Come & rule over us, that we may serve & follow You. Come with Your love, humility, & perfect obedience, & let Your lowliness become our glory. Come into the midst of Your people & bless us, for we are Your heritage. Forgive us our sin, & do not angrily cast away Your servants, for You are meek & gracious. Clothe us with the garment of Your righteousness, for You are the only righteous one & our helper. Satisfy us with the abundance of Your mercy, for You did become poor for our sakes that by Your poverty we might be made rich. Hear us, Lord Jesus, for the sake of Your holy name. Amen."  Lutheran Prayer Book

BAPTISM

"How can you trust your Baptism? Because you can trust the Word of the Gospel, for 'it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes' (Rom. 1:16). And this is what He says about your Baptism:  'Baptism...now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 3:21)." Rev. Gregory Truwe, The Lutheran Witness, Sept 2020

STRENGTH

"Jesus asks nothing of us without giving us the strength to perform it. His commandment never seeks to destroy life, but to foster, strengthen & heal it."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Men's Devotional Bible

BLACK FRIDAY & ADVENT

"The commencement of the Christmas shopping season overshadows the commencement of a far quieter season. The season of Advent signals the coming of Christmas for Christians, though not in the way that Black Friday signals the coming of the same. "Advent is about the spirituality of emptiness," writes Joan Chittister, "of enough-ness, of stripped-down fullness of soul." It is a far cry from the hustle of the holidays that is a race for storing things up. Speed-hoarding through the days of Christmas preparation, Christmas itself even becomes anticlimactic. "Long before December 25th everyone is worn out," said C.S. Lewis more than 50 years ago, "—physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making... They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house."(1) Quite the opposite, Advent is a season meant to slow us down, to open windows of awareness and health, to trigger consciousness. It is about finding the kind of quiet and the sort of emptiness that can expectantly offer a place for the fullness of God as an infant among us . . . 

"Advent, after all, is about the riches of being empty-handed; empty-handed, so that we can fully hold the mystery before us and nothing less; empty-handed, like the God who came down from heaven without riches or power, but meek and small—and full, expectant, and enough."  Jill Carattini, Slice of Infinity