Wordswithoutspacesarehardtounderstand
And so is life....
What words are on our lips as we begin Advent? What jumble of words are in our hearts and heads crying out to be separated and sorted and silenced? How can we use the four weeks of Advent to craft out some space? How can we prepare our hearts to receive the Living Word Jesus Christ, both as the Bethlehem baby and as our beloved Saviour?
This collection of prayers are the words that are in my head as I think of Advent and Christmas and reflect on the coming weeks, from my little caravan in the grounds of Mill House. Preparing is one of the great themes of Advent and looking and listening are two of the most precious aspects I have been given as this new stage of my journey unfolds. Whether it is looking at the vivid stars in a sky so dark it is ablaze, or whether it is listening to rain drops dripping on the roof, or pigeons settling down for the night, or an owl out hunting. The sights and sounds are God’s gift and are a way of receiving more of God as I become entwined with creation, her times and seasons, her colours and decay, her struggle and all her joy.
I pray that as we look and listen day by day, drawing closer to Bethlehem and preparing for the birth of Christ, we may both see the sights and hear the sounds around us but also the sights and sounds of the outcasts, the suffering, the abused, the abandoned, the addicted. Or else we will settle in the inn of complacency and miss the cry of the stable. The cry of life new born and eternal. The cry of Emmanuel, God with us. The cry of Christmas, every moment, every day.
God of the stable, whose cry is love,
guide our steps to Bethlehem.
Empty us of all our noise
And Be the space between our words
That is silence and in seeking, in looking and in listening
We may find your gift
Which wrapped not in tinsel, but in hope reborn, is truly Christmas
Now and always
Amen.
to see the prayers go to www.lynnechittypoetryandprayers.com or email me on lynnechitty@fsmail.net and i will email the collection to you
