Patrick Comerford
I am getting ready – for Christmas, but also for Advent.
Advent begins tomorrow [2 December 2018], and earlier this week I spent the greater part of a day selecting hymns and preparing the readings for December, including the hymns and readings for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.
Meanwhile, I am also preparing for my morning reflections in Advent, using the Prayer Diary, ‘Pray With the World Church,’ prepared by the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), and using the Advent Devotional Calendar prepared in Lichfield Cathedral for 2018, which is available HERE.
Lichfield Cathedral suggests using the calendar by lighting your Advent candle each day as you read the Bible and pray.
It suggests trying to lay aside 5-15 minutes every day, and buying or using a special candle to light each day as you read and pray through the suggestions on the calendar.
Each week there is a suggestion to ‘eat simply’ – try going without so many calories or too much rich food, just have enough.
There is a suggestion to donate to a charity working with the homeless. There is encouragement to pray through what you see and notice going on around you in people, the media and nature.
The Lichfield Cathedral calendar begins today [1 December 2018], on the eve of Advent. It suggests reading Luke 21: 34-36, and offers this thought:
Think about the next 24 days. Get ready: tidy a room as if to receive a guest, pray ‘Come Lord Jesus!’
Join me each morning throughout December as I begin each day praying with USPG and Lichfield Cathedral.
Continued tomorrow
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