Advent is a time of preparation as we await the birth of Jesus at Christmas. It helps us to remember a more profound truth, as we open our hearts and share our deepest hopes and desires with our God. This Advent season we might use the Advent wreath as a focus for our prayer.
As we light a candle each week we might pray with a different word, hope, love, joy and peace, and apply the word to our lives here at Marquette and beyond.
As we remember what brought us to Marquette how might we imagine a bright and hope-filled future?
As we focus on the love we experience from our family and friends, how might we freely share this love with all of those we encounter?
As we experience the joy of Gaudete Sunday, how do we share the joy in our hearts with others?
As we pray for peace in the days leading up to Christmas, can we pray for peace in our own hearts and pray fervently for greater peace in our country and our world?
As we look for signs of hope this Advent season, in the evergreen tree, in the smile of someone we love, in a gesture of kindness, let us pray with hope as we light the candles on the Advent wreath.
We pray with joyful expectation and for our greatest hope: “You are to conceive and bear a son and you are to name him Jesus. He will be great and be called Emmanuel, God is with us.”
