Prayers for Advent-Peace

 

Photos from St. Mark's Live nativity

O God, we wait upon you to lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth.  Lead us from
despair to hope, from fear to trust.  Lead us from hate to love, from unrest to peace.  Let your promise of peace fill our hearts and the world.  May we live into your expectation that our lives will demonstrate your teachings, from the prophets to the present.  

                                                                                                                         

Living God, forgive us, that in music in the stores and the jingles in the air, we do not hear the songs of angels; that in the hustles and bustle of every day and every one, we do not see the child standing alone in tears, the family struggling for existence, the outcasts pushed further away from hope; that in the excess of the season, we do not find peace, hope, or joy. Pour your mercy upon us, O God, and finish what you have started in us.  As we share in your grace, may we also share in the work of the gospel, begun in the birth of Jesus. Amen