First Sunday of Advent

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.


First Sunday of Advent prayer from the Book of Common Prayer

FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH

by John Rutter

For the beauty of the earth; For the beauty of the skies, For the love which from our birth over and around us lies: Lord of all, to thee we raise this our joyful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night, Hill and vale and tree and flower, Sun and moon and stars of light: Lord of all, to thee we raise this our joyful hymn of praise.

For the joy of human love, Brother, sister, parent, child, friends of earth, and friends above, For all gentle thoughts and mild: Lord of all to thee we raise this our joyful hymn of praise.

For each perfect gift of thine to our race so freely given, Graces human and divine, Flow'rs of earth and buds of heav'n: Lord of all to thee we raise this our joyful hymn of praise.

Amen.

Abide in his love

Lord, show us your love.  Help us know with all the saints the love that passes knowledge.  Lord, show us in your own blessed life what it is to abide in your love.  And the sight will so win us that it will be impossible for us to seek, even for one single hour, any other life than the life of abiding in your magnificent love.  

-Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ

The Infinite and the Finite

THOU GREAT I AM,

Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at
      the thought of a Being
  with whom one day is as a thousand years,
  and a thousand years as one day,
A mighty God, who, amidst the lapse of worlds,
  and the revolutions of empires,
  feels no variableness,
  but is glorious in immortality.
May I rejoice that, while men die, the Lord lives;
  that, while all creatures are broken reeds,
    empty cisterns,
    fading flowers,
    withering grass,
  he is the Rock of Ages, the Fountain
    of living waters.
Turn my heart from vanity,
  from dissatisfactions,
  from uncertainties of the present state,
  to an eternal interest in Christ.
Let me remember that life is short and
    unforeseen,
  and is only an opportunity for usefulness;
Give me a holy avarice to redeem the time,
  to awake at every call to charity and piety,
  so that I may feed the hungry,
    clothe the naked,
    instruct the ignorant,
    reclaim the vicious,
    forgive the offender,
    diffuse the gospel,
    show neighbourly love to all.
Let me live a life of self-distrust,
  dependence on thyself,
  mortification,
  crucifixion,
  prayer.


Pgs 190-191, from "The Valley of Vision", a collection of Puritan prayers and devotionals compiled and edited by Arthur Bennett