Wednesday, December 2, 2020


Dec. 2020 Photo by David Ames
 

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

For the Darkness of Waiting: Advent 2 resource for Emmanuel Church and friends

 Here is the full litany whose first two verses were quoted in This Week at Emmanuel Church's "Advent at Home." 
 
Read it slowly. Read it aloud. If you are observing Advent at home with one or more companions, read it responsively.


FOR THE DARKNESS OF WAITING

For the darkness of waiting
of not knowing what is to come
of staying ready and quiet and attentive,
we praise you O God:
 
for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.

For the darkness of staying silent
for the terror of having nothing to say
and for the greater terror
of needing to say nothing,
we praise you O God:

for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.

For the darkness of loving
in which it is safe to surrender
to let go of our self-protection
and to stop holding back our desire,
we praise you O God:

for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.

For the darkness of choosing
when you give us the moment
to speak, and act, and change,
and we cannot know what we have set in motion,
but we still have to take the risk,
we praise you O God:

for the darkness and the light 
are both alike to you.

For the darkness of hoping
 in a world which longs for you,
for the wrestling and the labouring of all creation
for wholeness and justice and freedom
we praise you O God:

for the darkness and the light
are both alike to you.

                     Janet Morley
                    All Desires Known, expanded edition
                    (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 1992)
                    pp. 58-59