Eve of the Third Sunday of Advent: December 16, 2017
As we begin the liturgy for the Third Sunday of Advent, we light this candle to burn a full week. Next Sunday we will be joyously awaiting the dawn of our salvation in the person of Jesus. This week’s candle opens its heart to receive the spark of Emmanuel into our daily lives. Lives “humble, obscure and laborious” as our Constitutions say, but how glorious when the simplicity of openness can take what seems to be a rather grey-sounding experience and set it ablaze with the Presence of God and of the Kingdom that Jesus came to manifest. “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled.” That is our call, too, to cast the fire of The Presence upon the earth. To open to that quiet fire that burns within each of us and respond in love to one another and to the world. Emmanuel, God-with-us, we thank you that there is never a moment when you are not with us in the totality of your being. Soften us in openness, give us welcoming hearts to the reality that surrounds and fills us. And give us the joy of being the Kingdom of your Son in our world.
