Second Sunday of Advent (From EWTN.com)
Prayer for the Advent Wreath
Lord, our God, we praise You for Your Son, Jesus Christ,
for He is Emmanuel, the Hope of all people.
He is the Wisdom that teaches and guides us.
He is the Savior of us all.
O Lord,let your blessing come upon us as we light
the first and second (purple) candles of this wreath.
May the wreath and its light be a sign of
Christ’s promise of salvation.
May He come quickly and not delay.
We ask this in His holy name. Amen.
Waiting
We light a candle today, a small dim light against a world that
often seems forbidding and dark. But we light it because we
are a people of hope, a people whose faith is marked by an
expectation that we should always be ready for the coming of the Master.
The joy and anticipation of this season is captured
beautifully in the antiphons of hope from the monastic liturgies:
See! The ruler of the earth shall come, the Lord
who will take from us the heavy burden of our exile.
The Lord will come soon, will not delay.
The Lord will make the darkest places bright.
We must capture that urgency today in the small flame of our candle.
We light the candle because we know that the coming of
Christ is tied to our building of the kingdom.
Lighting the flame, feeding the hungry, comforting the sick,
reconciling the divided, praying for the repentant,
greeting the lonely and forgotten – doing all these works hastens His coming.
