Advent 2024
Alleluia, Alleluia! Lord, show us your mercy and love and grant us your salvation.
Week One – Candle of Hope
As we begin the season of Advent, we look for signs of hope in our world. People helping each other. Walls of separation being pulled down. Family and Friends gathering to celebrate Christmas. Recovery from floods and cessation from war…
We find signs of hope in a young family, travelling a long way from home, expecting a baby and being surrounded by the compassion of strangers.
We light the first candle for the hope we find in the world, as we wait to celebrate the coming Christ into our world and into our lives.
Week Two – Candle of Peace
We light the Second Candle and listen for the word of peace. We listen for stories where people stop hurting each other and start helping, for words of peace from leaders, that they may unite people and give them hope. We listen for ways to take care of our environment and bring hope for the future of our planet.
We remember that Christ is the Prince of Peace.
We light the second candle for the peace that sings in our hearts, that God’s reign is near.
Candle Of Joy
We light the third candle, yearning for joy of God that comes to us through the birth of Christ. We remember how Mary sang a song of joy before Joy before Jesus was born, ow how God was going to make all things new.
We sing our own songs of joy, hoping that sadness and mourning will be turned into gladness and dancing.
We light this third candle for the joy we know in Christ Jesus.
Candle of Love
We light the fourth candle, knowing that God’s love has always been with us. God’s love has been made knows to us in a new way, through the birth of the Christ-child.
God has become one of us, the Word that breathes the Spirit into us, and in Christ we know the fullness of God’s love.
We are called to share this love with the world.
We light this fourth candle with the hope that all may know the love God has for the whole world.