Praying for Peace in Advent
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Alexander, Andy, S.J.
Waldron, Maureen McCann
Issue Date
2000-01-01
Volume
Issue
Type
Text
Language
en_US
Keywords
Advent , Prayers
Alternative Title
Abstract
"Text from the first half of "Praying for Peace in Advent"|Changing the Way We Pray for Peace|All of us, at one time or another, have felt heart-sick about the war in the Middle East. Apart from all the politics, we know that war is a failure of peace. No matter how evil the enemy, or how critically necessary it might be to remove him, war is simply tragic and results in the death of thousands of innocent people, and scars thousands more - if not all of us in some way.|Most of the time, if we turn to God and beg for peace, it is difficult to know how to pray it. It can seem "futile." Can God really change the hearts of enough people to give peace a chance?|A Part of our Advent Longing|Part of our Advent longing will be to grow in our desire for peace - a hunger and thirst for it. For at midnight Liturgy on Christmas eve, we will hear the angels say to the shepherds:|"Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."|Let's let a desire for the Good News of Christmas grow in our hearts each day now. Let's feel the pain of "hostility" and fear and anxiety of all those who are in the middle of the terror of war - civilians, soldiers, and all of us. And as we feel this tremendous longing and hope, let's turn to God and ask for peace in our own hearts. In these precious days of preparation, we can all be peace-makers at home, with our friends and relatives, in our parishes and faith communities and where we work. As we make our own efforts at peace around us, let's turn to two of the Advent guides that scripture gives us. |Two Women of Faith |Whether we are a man or a woman, a little child, a teen, an adult, or aging, we can look to Elizabeth and Mary in our longing for peace - in our hearts and in the world. |This photo of an Afghani mother can help us bring together our longing for peace and our turning to Elizabeth in our prayer. Elizabeth suffered doubly. She was growing old and people judged her. People would have assumed that her "curse" of being child-less was a punishment from God. She deserved this suffering, because she was a sinner, they would have thought. When Elizabeth could not bear a child, she bore her suffering with faith. She had trust that God loved her and that, if it was God's desire, her marriage with Zachary would be fruitful with a child. In the meantime, her life and her marriage were fruitful with hope. Oh, how she must have prayed for her husband's faith and consolation. She knew his pain. He would have no son to continue his priestly work. When God's message came to Zachary, inspiring him to hope that he would have a son, he was unable to speak, to say the child's name, because part of him still could not believe God could be that faithful. When he saw his child, Zachary's mouth could finally proclaim, what Elizabeth had longed for him to know: "His name is John." In Hebrew, "John" means, "God is a gracious giver." Could they ever imagine the child their trust in God gave birth to? How could they have dreamed of how John would prepare the way for a peace the world could not give? |What is that place in my life that is like a barren desert? What seems dry and incapable of growth and life? Where am I guilty of the critical eye that presumes to judge the soul of another? Where can I grow in trust of God's desires for me - to place my life, as it is now, in God's hands? How can my heart and my mouth proclaim that God is faithfully gracious? How can I place my trust in - dream of - the barely imaginable? "
Description
Citation
Publisher
Creighton University, Online Ministries
License
We welcome you to use the resources on this site for the Parish or Congregation bulletins or for prayers aids, under the following conditions: |1. That the material taken from the site is not taken as a whole. |2. That the material is not copied into another web site. |3. That the material taken from this site is not offered for sale. |4. That this reference be given to the origin of the material taken: "Taken from Praying Advent, on Creighton University's Online Ministries web site: http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html. Used with permission." |Links to this site or to individual resources may be used at any time.