Advent Prayer 2021

by M Doretta Cornell, RDC

It’s Advent, and the preachers cry out for the end,

the Second Coming, as they say, the triumphal eclipse

of all this.  But I long for something nearer.

Yes, Come, Lord Jesus! But come here, come now,

into the mess we have made of your Creation, into

the dark prisons we’ve made of so many lives.

Come, restore our hope, strengthen our wills and arms

to reach out to all you have made.  Help us to be blessing

to all, human, animal, plant, Earth herself.  Raise high

the mountains we have gouged for minerals, leave

trackless wilderness in peace, rough paths to curve ways

through your lush forests. Raise new trees and grasses,

flowering shrubs to spill their blossoms recklessly everywhere.

Let shovel and drill lie rusting and still. Let Earth lie fallow,

send down deep roots to draw life from the core.

Let small shoots poke through winter’s debris, one here,

one there, in due time. Let them, let us, rise then to flourish

in your rekindling Sun, in due time, in your spring.