Preparing your hearts with hope, peace, joy, and love

Preparing your hearts with hope, peace, joy, and love

Advent Week 1: Hope As we light this first candle of the Advent wreath together, Lord, please grant us hope in our relationship. As the days shorten and nights lengthen, darkness seems to replace the sunshine. As trees lose leaves and temperatures drop, we feel that the new life of Spring is far away. May the Advent candlelight shine like our commitment to one another, that we can find wisdom and strength in reaching out and holding one another s hope. Help us to carry one another through the winter as we do for each season, to bring the warmth rather than the cold shoulder. As winter may slow us down, help us Father, to illumine our hearts to remember that we are your beloved children. Even in the times where we may feel hopeless in what we or our partner has to offer, grant us patience as we wait on you, Lord, to be born in our hearts with a hope that will never disappoint. Like Mary and Joseph on the journey to Bethlehem, may we remain hope-filled through all of the challenges set before us on the way. Help us always to seek to understand what you are teaching us and preparing for us. Prevent our hearts from becoming drowsy from the anxieties of life. Help us to be vigilant together to each day, find the hope you reveal through your covenant with us. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:25 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3-4

Advent Week 2: Peace As we light this second candle of the Advent wreath together, Lord, grant us peace in our relationship. The holiday season can feel anything but peaceful with the changes in work schedules, rushed deadlines, and long hours trying to find the right gifts to give to loved ones. Help us to remember the Advent season and slow down amidst the busyness. Remind us that you are the reason for the season and you are the Prince of Peace. When we start to lose focus or begin to get attached to the things of this world, draw us closer to you and calm our hearts. The holidays bring tender memories that bring both happiness and sadness. Help us to communicate our emotions and needs genuinely and gently so that stress can be relieved. Mary and Joseph journeyed high and low for miles to Bethlehem. May we have the peace they found in Christ in their midst. Help us to assume the best intentions from one another and to approach one another with open hands. Help us to find the peace that surpasses all understanding. As we prepare the way for the Baby Jesus, fill us with confidence that the one who began a good work in us will continue to complete it...god is our witness!, And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15 With firm purpose you maintain peace; in peace, because of our trust in you. Isaiah 26:3 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:14 Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

Advent Week 3: Joy As we light this third candle of the Advent wreath together, Lord grant us joy in our relationship. We often become disappointed because things don t turn out the way we hoped. We sometimes expect the holiday season to satisfy us rather than lean on your love alone. Though there are many broken hearts during this season and across the world, help us to experience your true joy that no one can take away from us. Illumine in us a child-like faith in anticipation of your birthday. May this rose-colored candle remind us that you are near. When days seem long and our hearts feel sad or distant, kindle in us a joyful gratitude of what you have given us and a joyful hope of what is to come. Even when St John the Baptist couldn t see you, Jesus, he leapt in joy. Help us to rejoice in the Lord always. Help us to be glad and exalt with all our heart, knowing that you are in our midst. Help us to not be afraid or discouraged. You rejoice over us with gladness and you sing joyfully because of your love for us. May this Truth enliven us today! Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his holy place. 1 Chronicles 16:27 When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:19 This [is] the day [which] the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is now that God favors your works. Ecclesiastes 9:7 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Advent Week 4: Love As we light this fourth candle of the Advent wreath together, Lord, grant us love in our relationship. In this transient world, Love seems to be fleeting. True love is everlasting and founded on your sacrificial offering for us. We often receive a message that freedom is doing what we want. You gave us free will to have the opportunity to say Yes to you as you pursue us in love. Love is patient. Though we have waited four weeks for your birthday, ancestors waited centuries and even millenia! Anything that is worth it takes time. Grant in us this wisdom for other seasons as well as we are always in a season of waiting on something or someone. Though your Mother Mary didn t have all of the details and a plan laid out, she was happy to offer her life to you because she knew and loved you. Like your will for her, you want the best for us. Help us to want the best for one another so we can grow deeper in trust with a humble and surrendered heart. To be submitted to another is to be under the same mission. Lord, you are Love. You came from Love, in Love, and with Love to share with the world. Help us to accompany you on this mission through our vocation for one another, our families, and the world. Unite our wills to yours so your work of love can be done in us. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8 Jesus said to him, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:37-39 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...wife must respect your husband. Ephesians 5:25,33 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails... 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

The Nativity of Our Lord: Merry Christmas! Lord, today we think back to the first Christmas when you brought light to a cold and dark stable. What a gift for your parents, shepherds, and magi to see the face of God. They believed that what was spoken to them would be fulfilled. Their faith brought them to the manger where you lay as a newborn child. You became like us, so we could become like you. It is so tempting to be discouraged in this world where priorities seem to be for everything but getting to know you. Help us to feel your presence in a special way this Christmas and inspire us to keep you at the center of our relationship. You are for us. You lay down your life for us to know your love. Help us live by your example and see your face in everyone we encounter, especially our lifelong prayer partner you blessed us with. Bless us with the fruits from the sacraments as we remember your Real Presence is found in the Eucharist. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-14