Advent Devotional Liturgies – Week of Peace

We won’t get to enjoy Advent in the sanctuary this year. We’ll be worshipping on living room couches and at kitchen tables. But even when we’re apart, we recognize our togetherness—with one another, with God—through our worship.

This year, we encourage you to join in worship by lighting Advent candles and sharing in a weekly liturgy, either with others or alone. You can say the liturgy every day with your family, substituting scripture readings for the appropriate day. Or you can light a candle on Sunday to mark a new week.

Join us as we prepare to receive the Christ child—God’s love incarnate for you.

 

SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT – PEACE

 

OPENING SENTENCES

The Lord shall come when morning dawns,

and earth’s dark night is past.

As the sentry waits for daybreak,

so my soul hopes for the Lord.

 

PRAYER

 

We praise you, O Lord our God, Ruler of all things,

by whose word the shadows of evening fall.

your wisdom opens the gates of morning;

your understanding orders the changes of time and seasons;

your will controls the stars as they travel through the skies.

You are the Creator of both night and day,

making light recede before darkness,

and darkness before light.

 

Living and Eternal God, rule over us always,

through day and night, light and dark,

through all season and celebrations,

as we look for the light of the Savior.

Illumine our hearts, that we might find him. Amen.

 

LIGHTING THE ADVENT CANDLE

 

Light two purple candles. When lighting the second candle, say,

 

We light this candle as a sign of the coming light of Christ.

As the Lord has promised in days to come,

The wolf shall lie down with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling will lie down together,

and a little child shall lead them.

 

SCRIPTURE READINGS

 

see list below

 

CANTICLE

 

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his servant David,
⁷⁰ as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
⁷¹     that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
⁷² Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
and has remembered his holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us ⁷⁴ that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people
by the forgiveness of their sins.
⁷⁸ By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Luke 1:68-79

 

DISMISSAL

 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

be with your Spirit. Amen.

Galatians 6:18

 

Bless the Lord.

The Lord’s name be praised.