Dec. 2020 Photo by David Ames
 

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