Come, O Wisdom

By Evelyn Gerardo Challis,
Selah Companion

Liturgy for Advent

Opening prayer: As we await with longing the celebration of Christ’s holy birth may we embrace the inner light we have been given through the abiding love of our God. May God’s Love kindle a luminosity that heals the darkness and doubt, fragility and sin of our world within, and the universal world of which we are a part.

Intercession: Carry us, O God, as Mary carried Life within her. Carry us as we yearn for the arrival of fresh perspective, that our life might be given to bringing about a peaceable kingdom of heaven on earth. May those whom we entrust with faith-filled leadership in our nation, and local governance, churches, synagogues, temples, and the sanctuary of our being have eyes that burn with love, hearts that open with compassion, and words that speak your wisdom and extinguish the fires of injustice, we pray.  

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

The Intercession: Protect us, O God, as we journey individually and collectively, through worldwide sorrows, and an upsurge of violence in this nation that have taken lives and loved ones, homes, and hope. Continue to protect all those who speak and serve courageously to bring healing in known and unknown ways. In their care of us, especially the most vulnerable, hold them closely, dear God and give them sustained comfort and protection, we pray,

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

The Intercession: As we celebrate this Advent season, may we be mindful of the everyday miracles that invite us to remember and surrender to the joy of being God’s beloved, we pray. 

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

The Intercession: Knowing the joy of anticipation and yet profound loneliness, frustration or sadness that may be part of these holy days, may we release dread and reflect the peace of the Spirit that sustains us in times of isolation and separation. May we be turned to your luminous Love, O God, so that you are known in every place, in every welcoming face, in every human heart; seen in our struggles and in our longing; embraced in our suffering and in our rejoicing. We lift up to you at this time the names of those you know well, O God, as they, and we, seek your healing. We pray especially for (Name those for whom you wish to remember.)

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

The Intercession: Home is where we all belong, O God, and loved ones among us have been welcomed to the home of eternal peace where suffering and pain have ceased and our breath of life is one with yours. We entrust to you those dearly loved who have died, especially (Name those whom you wish to remember who have died). 

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

Closing Prayer:  Blessed God, Holy One, hear our prayers and the many more we carry within us. As we speak your name, bless our union with you that it might deepen and still us, so that finally, out of the silence, we might emerge proclaiming that you are in our midst, that you shine in our darkness, that you are at work in our world and that you move us through turbulence to a lasting peace. Luminous One, in Your Holy Name, we pray.  Amen.