These liturgical texts are appropriate for use throughout the season of Advent and may be repeated from week to week.
Sequence of Confession and Lament
God of hope, God of arrival,
the days are coming,
and your promise is arriving,
yet we struggle to wait.
We forget how to live as your people.
In our impatience, we choose despair,
forgetting that in darkness, new life grows.
Turn us back to your hope.
In our anxiety, we choose ways of violence,
believing that our own strength will save us.
Turn us back to your peace.
In our want, we believe stories of scarcity,
forgetting what you have done and given us.
Turn us back to your joy.
In our insecurity, we forget we are beloved,
choosing ways of self-protection
over self-giving.
Turn us back to your love.
Grant us sacred attention
in this Advent season,
that we might bear witness
to your coming,
always in our midst
and on the way. Amen.
Receive now these words of assurance:
The God who formed us and keeps us in love
is always drawing near in Christ,
bringing life and salvation to all.
Rest in this promise:
Christ has come, Christ is coming,
and Christ will come again.
Let us rest in his forgiving grace. Amen.
Invitation to Discipleship
In this season of Advent,
we embrace the growing dark
as a place where new life
and new worlds are born.
Let us be stretched in our waiting.
Let us be steady in our hoping.
Let us remain ready and alert,
to receive Christ’s birth with joy
and expectation. Amen.
Eucharist
Invitation to the Table
Siblings in the community of creation,
this is the holy feast of our triune God.
In this Advent season,
we come to God’s feast
in the midst of our longings,
in the midst of our waiting,
in the midst of this enduring truth—
Christ has come, Christ is coming,
and Christ will come again.
In this collective hope,
let us gather around this table
and together be filled
with God’s very good gifts
in the presence of our coming Lord.
Great Thanksgiving
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts!
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to God,
who brings us together.
We give thanks and praise to the One
who welcomes us to the table.
Blessed are you, Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, who is always with us.
Though we hide and run away from you,
your presence is always drawing close,
breaking into our longing
and meeting us in our waiting.
Thank you for the gift of incarnation,
which reminds us that we are not alone.
Thank you for the gift of this table,
which reminds us
that you are always extending us life.
Therefore in thanksgiving, we praise you,
joining the song of the universal church
and the heavenly choir, singing:
Holy, holy, holy one,
God of justice and love,
heaven and earth are full
of your wonder.
The incarnate Christ
is arriving among us.
Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us
and upon this bread and cup.
May Christ’s body sustain us
and Christ’s blood empower us,
so that we might be found faithful
in our waiting. Amen.
Prayer after Communion
Thank you, O Christ, for this feast of life.
You bring our longings to birth
and send prophets to awaken us
to your advent among us.
Remind us today that your love feeds us
and your life strengthens us.
Commission us now
to feed as we have been fed,
to forgive as we have been forgiven,
to love as we have been loved,
and to live as the church
that Christ dreamed of.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
