Advent Daybook, 1: Shall we be saved?
My Advent daybook for these days of prayer and waiting. Join me, won't you?
Elderly residents of La Vita Bella care home in storm-hit Texas were rescued after a photo of them part-submerged in water was widely shared on social media. The water went from ankle-deep to waist-deep in about 15 minutes.
by Trudy Lampson via Reuters (source)
music for today: 7 O'clock News/Silent Night by Simon & Garfunkel (lyrics) & Spirit Pour Out by Andy & Rachel Graham (lyrics)
all readings for the day: Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37
excerpts:
“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?”
——-
”...stir up your might
and come to save us!
Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!”
——-
”But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”
* Sunday Scripture readings are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year B). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (Year 2).
prayer for the day:
“Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
Write out all of the stanzas to the Advent carol "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". Place the handwritten song somewhere you will see every day during Advent.
(see all Advent daybook posts from 2016 here)