December 2024

Father of us all, benevolent Creator, make us grateful for what we are.
Teach us to trust in life’s daring, in hope’s blossoming, in risky words…
Father of a people born in the desert, teach us to walk together, to pace our steps with the weakest, to believe in what is possible for everyone…
Prince of Peace, Light of the world, teach us to love those you have placed on our path, as you love them, so that each of us can reach our full human potential…
Jesus of Nazareth, our brother, open our eyes to the extraordinary in our common everyday life, to the discreet signs, to the present moment with its fleeting and full grace…

Bless you, Lord, for the Beatitudes: they are the future that is born for a dying world.
Blessed are you for the Beatitudes, for they are a struggle, the bare feet of hope.
Blessed are you for the Beatitudes, for they have nothing to defend, all they have to do is love.
Blessed are you for the Beatitudes: they are not a sign of glory, but of the cross.
Bless you for the Beatitudes; they raise cries of expectation and awaken deserts,
they give God the face of a child.

Lord, you say to us: ‘Believe in what you ask for in prayer’.
So fill our prayer with confidence for all those who are deeply longing.
For those who are waiting for the return of a child or a spouse, and for those who are waiting to return to their land or their homes. We pray to you.
For those who are waiting for a cure, or simply a reprieve from their battle against the progression of their illness. We pray to you.
For those who are waiting for work, housing, papers, more decent living conditions for their loved ones. We pray to you.
For those who no longer dare to wait, who need you to surprise them in their resignation or despair. We pray to you.

Night spreads over the world. Many people seem to have lost their way.
What can we do if we can no longer orient ourselves by the stars?
Jesus, our light, come Lord, come!
Fear builds walls, between peoples, between people.
It also closes the door to hearts.
Jesus, our Master of love, come Lord, come!
Hope is dying out in our countries, overflowing with goods.
It rises like a living flame in so many others struggling to emerge from poverty.
Jesus our freedom, come Lord, come!
Modestly, peacemakers are working to weave new relationships,
of dialogue, of acceptance of otherness.
Jesus our Peace, come Lord, come!

We know almost nothing about you,
a few words, thrown into the wind from the lake, in Galilee long ago, a breath that has since continued to blow myriads of beautiful living creatures into the deep.
We know almost nothing about you,
gestures that continue to bear fruit,
paths that unfold an unknown hope,
the depth of a spring that nothing dries up.
We know almost nothing about you,
and yet, along with many others, we live from this almost nothing.

In this season of Advent, we pray to you:
Give us the gift of an existence unified by the expectation of what you have promised and which, we believe, will come,
will come. Not magically, but because your Spirit awakens the desire for it,
a desire for peace, benevolence and justice.
Maranatha! Come, Jesus, universal brother, Messiah of God!

Lord our God,
the joy of Advent brings us together. But how many of us still know what Advent is?
In a world driven by speed and immediacy, do we still know how to wait?
Yet waiting makes life good. It brings a thrill of joy to the present.
But to savour waiting, perhaps we also need to know what’s missing,
the hollow of an unfulfilled desire.
This evening we offer you our Advent prayer, a prayer of expectation that comes to us from the mists of time…
so vast is your Promise…
Receive, Lord, our expectation, which is already illuminated by a mysterious Presence:
He who has come, who is coming and who will come.

Isn’t our greatest desire to live and see in order to believe?
Lord God, who calls us to grow continually in hope.
To live and believe in order to love, whatever our strengths and weaknesses,
to become and become again this Church in which the fruits of the Gospel ripen.
You who give us desire and assurance, bring about growth again and again,
that we may be instruments of justice and peace, as you hope we will be, God of the living,
in the work of creation in the Spirit of Jesus Christ for all ages and all times.

Dear Lord,
our world trembles before an uncertain future. With a whole people moving forward with difficulty,
our faith raises questions, sometimes destabilises, and sets hearts on fire.
In our midst, it inspires witnesses to a living faith and encourages us to persevere in Hope.
When we feel out of breath, when we can no longer see the signs and the fire flickers within us and around us, may your look of tenderness, Father, make us lift our eyes to the promised Peace.
When we feel poor, empty, with nothing to share, awaken in us the memory of the gift received and renewed every day.
When we become aware that we are full of ourselves and that our selfishness is overflowing,
come and rekindle in us that flame of happiness that comes from elsewhere and that nothing and no one can take away from us.

Spirit of God,
You whom a long tradition before us invokes as the Father of the poor,
the Defender, the Comforter,
you heal the wounded, you straighten the bent.
Putting people on their feet, again and again, stronger than fate,
that’s what you’ve been doing since the beginning!
You are the Wind that blows where we least expect it,
subversive and free,
you displace and dispossess,
you fill empty hands,
you who prepare the Day of God, we’re waiting for you!