An Advent Prayer

Beautiful prayer for Advent by Debra Dean Murphy:

Advent God,

you call us to watch and wait,
to prepare ourselves for the surprising ways you come to us:
as a baby in a feeding trough,
as a preacher of truth and justice;
as bread and wine consumed at your table;
as Priest, Judge, Lord, and King.
As we enter this season of Advent we see the distress among nations,
and we acknowledge the stress and anxiety in our own lives.

We admit that we are caught up in the frenzy of Christmas
even before we’ve had time to ponder the mysteries of Advent.
We confess that we prefer feasting to fasting,
that we’d rather shop than pray,
that we’re more comfortable at the side of the cradle than at the foot of the cross.
Give us grace, we pray, in the days and weeks ahead,
to cultivate an Advent spirit of patience and vigilance, of hopeful expectation.
We pray with Zechariah
that in your tender compassion the dawn from on high might break upon us,
and that you would guide our feet into the way of peace. Amen.