Morning Prayer: Advent - Love
The Call to Prayer
May God direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:5
The Request for Presence
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing word, for I have put my trust in you.
Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
Psalm 143:8
The Greeting
Because of your great love, O God, we are not consumed, for your compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Adapted from Lamentations 3:22-23
The Hymn
Hail to the Lord’s Annointed, great David’s greater Son
Hail in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression, to set the captives free,
To take away transgression, and rule in equity.
He brings salvation speedy to those who suffer wrong;
He saves the poor and needy, and helps the weak be strong;
They sing who once were sighing, their darkness turned to light,
For they, who once were dying, are precious in his sight.
He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth,
And love, joy, hope, like flowers, spring in his path to birth.
Before him on the mountains shall peace, the herald go,
And righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.
O’er every foe victorious, Christ on his throne shall rest,
from age to age more glorious, all blessing and all blest:
the tide of time shall never his covenant remove;
his name shall stand forever—that name to us is Love.
James Montgomery
PCC Hymn #115 Hail to the Lord’s Anointed
The Refrain
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
1 John 4:16b
A Reading
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13
The Refrain
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
1 John 4:16b
The Psalm
Sing out your joy to YHWH, you who love justice—praise is fitting for loyal hearts.
Praise YHWH with the harp, and play music with a ten-stringed lyre!
Sing God a new song, play with all your skill, and with shouts of joy!
For the word of YHWH is true and everything God does can be trusted.
YHWH loves justice and right and fills the earth with love.
By your Word, YHWH, the heavens were made, by the breath of your mouth all the stars.
You gather the seas together and control them, putting the Deep into its vault.
Let all the earth revere YHWH; let all who live in the world tremble before you!
You spoke, and everything came to be; commanded, and it all sprang into being.
You frustrate the designs of the nations, defeat the plans of the peoples.
But your own plan will stand firm forever, the designs of your heart from age to age.
Happy is the nation whose God is YHWH! Happy the people you choose as your own inheritance!
From the heavens you look forth, YHWH, and see all of humankind.
From your dwelling place you watch over all the peoples of the earth.
You shape the hearts of them all and consider all their deeds.
A ruler isn’t saved by the size of an army; a warrior doesn’t escape because of strength.
Trust in the horse for your deliverance and you’ll be disappointed—despite its might it cannot save.
The eyes of YHWH look on those who stand in reverence, on those who hope in God’s love
To rescue them from death, or to keep them alive in famine.
And so we wait for YHWH, our help and our shield.
For in you our hearts find joy; we trust in your holy Name.
May your love be upon us, YHWH, as we place all our hope in you.
Psalm 33
The Refrain
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
1 John 4:16b
The Gloria
Of eternal love begotten
uncreated One-in-Three,
Christ, the Alpha and Omega,
Christ, the Source, the End will be
Of the things that are and ha--ve been,
and that future years shall see
evermore and evermore.
God Redeemer, God Creator,
God the Spirit, now to thee
hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
and unwearied praises be,
honour, glory, and domi--nion
and eternal victory
evermore and evermore.
Latin, Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-413); translation, John Mason Neale (1818-1866)
PCC Hymn #163 Of eternal love begotten
The Lord’s Prayer
The Prayer Appointed for the Day
Loving God, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name, we pray that you, out of the riches of divine glory will strengthen us inwardly with power through the working of the Spirit. We pray that Christ would dwell in our hearts through faith, so that we would be rooted and grounded in love, and would be able to grasp fully the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love, and with all God’s holy ones experience this love that surpasses all understanding, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. O God, your power is at work within us to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. To you, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, world without end, Amen.
Adapted from Ephesians 3:14-21
The Concluding Prayer of the Church
O Love come down from heaven and dwell within
each heart, each mind, each person regardless
of who we are or what we have been given.
Each one can rest in You, for You love us.
Rev. Sarina Odden Meyer
Bible translations from the NRSV or The Inclusive Bible.