Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C with Blessing of Advent Wreath

PRIEST:          My dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus,
We gather today on this last Sunday of Advent Preparation to welcome in this Eucharist the Visitation of God’s Love. Like Elizabeth, we carry humanity’s longings within us…longings for a world of peace,  equality and justice;  like Mary,  we carry the Christ within us,  he who is God’s answer to every human longing, God’s gift of Mercy made Flesh.  Our meeting with the living God this day is rich with promise.  Let us seek to run to meet him with the obedience of love.

[proceed to wreath, singing the ‘Magnificat’]

Let us pray…
O God of our History, from all eternity You have spoken forth Your Word of Love that gives Life. Your Word created the heavens and earth…Your Word made man and woman in Your own image and likeness…Your Word called forth a People to serve Your Truth and Kingdom in the world. And in the fullness of time, You found a woman so full of love that Your Word could make His home in her heart and her womb. Through her,  indeed You our God have visited your people!  Bless this Advent Wreath of Light and Expectancy and bless our parish community with the faith and love of Mary so that the Word may be free to become Flesh in our flesh, so that the Day of His Kingdom may come…In the Name of the Father, + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…AMEN!

READER:   Mary, the woman of faith, risked saying ‘yes’
                        to an unknown future in God’s plan:
                        for our lack of faith and trust,

                                          LORD HAVE MERCY…

                         Mary, the woman of hope, journeyed forgetting herself
                         in order to serve Elizabeth and all God’s People:
                         for the times we refuse to hope and to serve,

                                          CHRIST HAVE MERCY…

                        Mary, the woman of love, welcomed the Word in her heart
                       before she welcomed the Word in her womb:
                       for our lack of love that silences God’s Word in today’s world,

                                          LORD HAVE MERCY…

PRIEST:   O Lord, stir up your might and come!
                     Touch us with Your overshadowing Spirit,
                     speak Your Word of forgiveness to our hearts and world,
                     so that the Saviour may come again and bring us life everlasting

                                          AMEN!

Let us share once more Mary’s Song of Rejoicing and Exultation  [‘Magnificat’]

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