LIGHTING OF THE FOURTH ADVENT CANDLE


Leader: Within each one of us is a blindness struggling to see, a deafness struggling to hear, a lameness longing to be made whole. Perhaps we are blind to our own beauty or deaf to the word of forgiveness or crippled by shame or self-doubt. Each of us, deep within, is broken, less than whole, in need of healing.

People: How hard we work at concealing our weakness and need from others, for ourselves, and from our God! We wear many masks for each other and for the world, and in the end all that is left within is a lonely, wounded child mutely reaching out with empty hands.

Leader: Like us, the one who gave the blind sight and made lepers clean entered a broken world with the innocence of an infant’s cry. A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, he was broken in every way except in his communion with God. He shares our fragile, wounded frame and knows each scar, each blow we have ever received.

People: To be known so intimately, so deeply, is to be loved with an immeasurable love! Because he entered our world, shared our lot, gave his life on the cross, the whole world now sojourns together toward one great healing.

Leader: In him each of us can find the wholeness for which we long. As we prepare for the birth of God, for the birth of love, for the birth of healing, let us open our hearts for the balm that heals, for the hands that make whole, for the Spirit that brings peace.

People: O Lord, as Advent unfolds toward Christmas, may our eyes be opened and our tongues freed. May we sing with joy and leap like the deer. May our souls blossom and be glad, and may everlasting joy be upon our heads. Amen.