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.