Prayers to be said on the four Sundays of Advent while lighting the Advent candle wreath.

I look up and experience her music as a Beatitude of Peace, a feathery sonnet that rings of grace and hope...

There in the deep sack of night, a tiny Hope was born. 

What if sometimes it’s about sparking potential into possibility, and possibility into existence?

The circle of evergreens reminds us that life and love will never end.

We light this chalice, the symbol of our faith, knowing that this morning many others across this land and around the world are doing the same. For us and for our far-flung kin it is a light of peace, of justice, and of love....

Each week until Christmas, we light a new candle on the Advent wreath, a circle of evergreens.

If ever there were a time for a candle in the darkness, this would be it. Using a spark of hope, kindle the flame of love, ignite the light of peace, and feed the flame of justice.

When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to...

The light green shoots of blossoms-to-have-been are out of sight under the drifting snow. Gale force winds are rattling the old house. The temperature is far below freezing. Nature is not cooperating with preparations for Easter. The storm evokes the spiritual quality of Good Friday more than...

In a world so filled with brokenness and sorrow It would be easy to lose ourselves in never ending grief, To be choked by our outrage To be paralyzed by the enormity of suffering, To feel our hearts squeeze tight with hopelessness....

A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more. ~ Matthew 2:18 I read those words aloud from the pulpit once a year, on Christmas Eve: a night when we celebrate the birth of hope and possibility and...

God of mercy, spirit who makes peace out of war, who wanders with refugees and keeps vigil with children at our border and all borders; Holy healer in hospitals and shelters, at schools, in homes, at weddings, and in planes; May your love be balm for all the hurt. May your truth be present in...

Let us join hearts in the spirit of meditation and prayer: Juntemos corazones en el espiritu de meditacion y oracion: Mysterious Presence, Presencia misteriosa, God, our Father and our Mother, Dios, nuestro Padre y nuestra Madre, Spirit of Life whom we struggle to name in our joys and our sorrows...

Let us be attendant now upon hope, faith, and love. Let us know ourselves to be in the presence of the Source and Ground of these things and everything, everything known and unknown, everything known and to-be-known, everything known and never-to-be-known. Here, in the conjunction of past and...

Holy Unnamable One, Wholly Unknowable One, Again we have read the story. Again we have sung the tale. Again we wonder at our place in it. Is it ours to tell? How can it beours to live?...

Into the dwelling place of togetherness, we come to collect remnants of hope.

We light this chalice to find inner peace, love for each other, and faith in ourselves. Also, to be welcoming to whomever we meet and kind to all living creatures. So gather around this light of hope as we share this time together.

In sightless night, terrors draw near Nameless fears of talon and tooth Hopelessness yawns before us—an abyss Alone and unknown in the gloom, longing for the dawn O sacred flame blaze forth—wisdom brought to life Guide us— With the light of hope The warmth of love The beacon of purpose and...

Deep calls unto deep, joy calls unto joy, light calls unto light. Let the kindling of this flame rekindle in us the inner light of love, of peace, of hope. And "as one flame lights another, nor grows the less,” we pledge ourselves to be bearers of the light, wherever we are.