A Liturgy for Advent Hope -
by Jon Timms
(To be read alone or as a group)
*I’m choosing Hope
I say ‘choose’ because sometimes
I don't want to.
It’s risky, vulnerable,
What if it fails?
What if my longings are never realised?
My heart and my flesh may fail but You are the strength of my heart, You are my Hope.
*I hope to enter in,
To see Your beauty and the sacredness of the ordinary;
To laugh heartily from some place deep in my soul;
To witness the low winter sun bathe the ocean and the treetops
In burnt orange glory.
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from Him.
*Hope arrives on the wings of a promise.
Donkeys, Shepherds, Prophets and Priests
Lost in wonder, love and praise.
Will my eyes too, see your salvation?
Will the light of revelation fall upon my troubled heart?
With eyes fixed on this Child, this Kingdom-Bringer, may the glory of His face rest gently upon us.
*I lift my gaze to a mountain of love,
Resting in the silence only a winter’s night can bring:
Crackling fires
Cold fingertips
Ancient stories
Heavenly songs.
We see only in part, Hope in the unfolding nature of renewal and restoration.
*In the birth of the Ancient of Days,
In the quiet of a baby’s slumber,
In the treasure of a mother’s heart and
In the joy of a father’s smile,
In the assurance of a prophets voice from the wilderness,
Hope is welcomed in, and I find my awakened heart glimpsing home.
Amen.
Image: Alphonese Osbert, The Solitude of Christ, 1897; Source: Wikimedia Commons