Advent Candles: Come Lord Jesus

Bidding Prayer…. Celebrant

Beloved in Christ, in this season of Advent let it be our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the Angels, and in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem, to see the Babe lying in a manger.
Let us read and mark in Holy Scripture the loving purposes of God from the first day of our disobedience unto the glorious Redemption brought us by His Holy Son, … and let us look forward to the yearly remembrance of His birth with hymns and songs of praise.

But first let us pray for Christ’s Holy Catholic Church, the blessed company of all faithful people, whereof we are members; that it may please God to confirm and strengthen it in purity of faith, in holiness of life, and in perfectness of love, that in all things it may work according to God’s will, serve Him faithfully, and worship Him acceptably.

Let us pray also for the Ministers of God’s Holy Word and Sacraments; for Bishops, that they may minister faithfully and wisely the discipline of Christ; likewise for all Priests and Deacons, that they may shine as lights in the world, and in all things may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.

Let us pray for all the people of these United States, that they may live in the true faith and fear of God, and in brotherly charity, one towards another.

Let us pray also for the poor and the helpless, the hungry and the oppressed, the sick and those who mourn, the lonely and the unloved, the aged and the little children, and all those who know not the Lord Jesus, or who love Him not, or who by sin unrepented have grieved His heart of love. Finally, let us give unto God most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in His pure and lowly Mother and in all His Saints, that multitude which no one can number, who have been the choice vessels of His grace and the lights of the world in their several generations; and pray to God, that we may have grace to direct our lives after their good examples; that, this life ended, we may be made partakers with them of the glorious Resurrection, and the life everlasting.

These prayers and praises let us humbly offer up to the throne of Heaven, in the words which Christ Himself hath taught us:

OUR FATHER (All join in)

C. + Our help is in the Name of the Lord.
R. Who hath made heaven and earth.
C. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit. .
C. Let us pray. 

O Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true light that lightest every man that cometh into the world: + Bless, we pray thee, this wreath and its candles which we shall light in preparation for thy coming; and so enkindle our hearts with the fire of thy love that we may receive thee with joy and gladness, and evermore stand fast in the faith. Who livest and reignest, world without end.

R. Amen.
C. Behold, the Lord cometh
R. and all His Saints with Him; and there shall be in that day a great light, Alleluia

Scripture Reading: Jer. 31:31-34 

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the host of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

C. O Christ, arise, help us.
R. And deliver us for thy Name’s sake.
C. Come and save us, O Lord God of hosts.
R. Show the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole.
C. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
C. Let us pray. 

Stir up thy might, we beseech thee, O Lord, and come that we who are ever threatened by the peril of our sins may be counted worthy to be saved by thy deliverance. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.

*** The lighting of the candles on the Advent Wreath, immediately following the Scripture reading, signifies our waiting for Christ, the Light of men, to come to cast off the darkness of this world. 

C. Behold .. the Lord shall appear …
R. and will not tarry, and will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will manifest himself to all nations, Alleluia.

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 4O:1-5 

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lords’ hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

C. Christ, arise, help us.
R. And deliver us for thy Name’s sake.
C.. Come and save us, O Lord God of hosts.
R. Show the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.
C. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
C. Let us pray. 

Incline thine ear to our prayers, O Lord, we beseech thee; and lighten the darkness of our minds by the grace of thy visitation; Who with the Father and· the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth ever one God, world without end. 

R. Amen.