Liturgical Nerds

“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” -Karl Barth

Prayer during the Advent season seems like a no-brainer. But it is hard to prioritize something which has no immediate impact on our finances, our shopping lists, our party planning, our work to-dos, or our stress levels.

To say “you should pray during Advent” is not to add an additional chore to the list. To pray during Advent is to be aware of what God is up to during this season. It is the intuition, the gut reaction, the hunch, the conviction that nurtures faith in a faithless and adulterous generation. It is the tuning fork that indicates where divine harmonies may be found, and what dissonance must be allowed to fade into silence.

Advent proclaims that God is doing a new thing…that God is not finished with us yet. Praying the O Antiphons, the traditional collects for each Sunday, the Magnificat, or simply keeping silence so that God might speak is perhaps the only way the Spirit can clue us in on what’s about to happen.

Don’t know what to pray? Common Worship, from the Church of England, has some very nice prayers for different times of the day, and there are seasonal emphases for Advent.