rejoice

O come, O come, Emmanuel

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Refrain:
   Rejoice! Rejoice!
   Emmanuel
   shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.  

O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
from depths of hell thy people save,
and give them victory over the grave.

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Latin hymn from the 12th century

Isaiah 7:14 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and shall call his name Immanuel.
 

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teach us to love what you have created

/ Eric Mathews / 1 Comment
 
Our Father, God, Creator of all your different children,
    teach us to love what you have created.
Teach us to see people one by one
    and to acknowledge them as our Father’s children,
    our brothers and sisters:
  not to pigeonhole them;
    not to hammer them into unnatural molds of our own making,
  but to rejoice in our differences,
    accepting people as they are
    – different but of equal worth –
    each one a part of God’s creation,
    showing something of his love and glory.
 
Sybil Phoenix, 1927-, Guyanese born British community worker
 
___________________________________________
 
 
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement 
    give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 
    so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify 
        the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, 
    in order to bring praise to God.
 

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Allow us to live in today’s Advent

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
 
O Lord, today we know once more, and in quite practical terms,
    what it means to clear away rubble and make paths smooth again.
We will have to know it and do it for years to come.
Let the crying voices ring out, pointing out the wilderness 
    and overcoming the devastation from within.
May the Advent figure of John,
    the relentless envoy and prophet in God’s name,
    be no stranger in our wilderness of ruins.
For how shall we hear unless someone cries out
    above the tumult and destruction and delusion?
 
Your Advent message comes out of an encounter of man
    with the absolute, the final, the gospel.
It is thus the message that shakes – 
    so that in the end the world shall be shaken.
The fact that the Son of Man shall come 
    is more than a historic prophecy;
  it is also a decree, 
    that Your coming and the shaking of humanity 
        are somehow connected.
If we are inwardly unshaken, 
    inwardly incapable of being genuinely shaken,
if we become obstinate and hard and superficial and cheap,
    then You will yourself intervene in world events
    and teach us what it means to be placed in this agitation 
    and stirred inwardly.
 
Allow us to live in today’s Advent, for it is the time of promise.
To eyes that do not see, it still seems that the final dice 
    are being cast down in these valleys, on those battlefields,
    in those camps and prisons and bomb shelters.
But just beyond the horizon the eternal realities
    stand silent in their age-old longing.
There shines on us the first mild light 
    of the radiant fulfillment to come.
From afar sound the first notes as of pipes and singing,
    not yet discernable as a song or melody.
It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold.
But it is happening. This is today.
And tomorrow the angels will tell what has happened 
    with loud rejoicing voices,
  and we shall know it and be glad,
    if we have believed and trusted in Advent.
 
Alfred Delp, 1907-1945, German Jesuit, executed for resistance to Nazism
Watch for the Light freely adapted
 
_______________________
 
 
In those days John the Baptist came, 
   preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

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to show the likeness of Jesus

/ Eric Mathews / 1 Comment
Last dinner / Sieger Koder
 
O Lord God,
You have commanded me to believe in Jesus,
    and that I would flee to no other refuge,
                               wash in no other fountain,
                               build on no other foundation,
                               receive from no other fullness,
                               rest in no other relief.
Hi water and blood were not severed in their flow at the cross,
    may they never be separated in my creed and experiences;
May I be equally convinced of the guilt and pollution of my sin,
    feel my need of a prince and savior,
    implore of him repentance as well as forgiveness,
    love holiness, and be pure in heart,
    have the mind of Jesus, and follow in his steps.
Let me not be at my own disposal,
    but rejoice that I am under the care of one
    who is too wise to err,
                   too kind to injure,
                   too tender to crush.
Help me to guide my affections with discretion,
                   to owe no one anything,
                   to be able to give to the one in need,
                   to feel it my duty and pleasure to be merciful and forgiving,
                   to show to the world the likeness of Jesus.
 
 
___________________________
 
 
I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords
 

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