Third Week of Advent

Advent is a special time to be present to the longing for God that dwells in each of us. Jesus, himself, would have known this longing for the Father.  It’s a time when, in spite of God’s life and beauty within us, we take ownership of the brokenness in our lives, in creation and in our world and seek the grace to be part of bringing wholeness and new life. This is Gaudate Sunday - Rejoice! Looking forward to Christ’s birth we are filled with hope, we are reinvigorated.

Readings

Zeph 3: 14-18   With gladness the Lord will rejoice over you.

Psalm. Is 12:2-6

Response: Cry out with joy and gladness; for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

Phil 4:4-7  The Lord is near.

Gospel: Luke 3:10-18. What, then, must we do?

Advent prayer

O Emmanuel

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

Malcolm Guite from Sounding the Seasons. Last of the O Antiphons for Advent.

Why the rose pink candle?

The rose candle is lit on Gaudate Sunday, (meaning Rejoice) the third week of Advent, and reflects a lightening of the purple/blue used throughout the rest of Advent. The rose pink represents the beginning of the transition from darkness to light and a turning away from penance to celebration.