During this Advent season of “waiting,” we’ve been praying some incredible prayers together as a church family. Several of you have asked, so below is a list of those prayers. Hope to see you on Sunday, December 20 at 10am, as we finish our Advent season and turn our focus to the celebration of Christmas!

Prayer for Syrian Refugees (From Archbishop Foley Beach of the ACNA):

LORD JESUS CHRIST our Refuge and Deliverer, Who as a child sought refuge in Egypt while fleeing from those who would persecute and harm You. Remember those today who must flee in the same manner, and find themselves in foreign and strange lands, granting them your Presence, your protection, and your provision. Illuminate us to be a shining light upon a hill amidst the dark evil in our world, that we may do our part with hospitality and resources, and that all who are refugees might be led to the brightness of Your redemptive love made present by Your glorious Incarnation, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

To read the letter and call to prayer from our Archbishop, along with a way to provide support through the Anglican Relief and Development Fund, click here.

Advent Prayer for our Seasons of Waiting:

Lord, we are waiting for your arrival. Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who are burdened with sorrow and grief, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who wrestle daily with anxiety and depression, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who struggle under the weight of guilt and shame, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who are bound by the chains of addiction, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who carry the weight of financial struggle, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who bear the scars of broken relationships, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who long for restoration with loved ones, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who are in desperate need of provision, food, and refuge, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For all who do not know the deep and abiding love of the Father, we pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

For you, we wait. In Your power, we prepare the way. To you we pray, Come, Lord Jesus.

“Patient Trust” – A Prayer of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
excerpted from Hearts on Fire