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Dec 1, 2024

Gregorian Prayer

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Once upon a time, there was a season called Advent, but it has fallen on hard times in recent years. The reason for its decline will hardly surprise you. There’s no money to be made in Advent! Christmas is what drives the money train. This would explain why retailers have been steadily hawking their wares since Halloween.
Christmas was not the first Christian holiday. That honor belongs to Easter. I mean, if there is no Easter, there is little point in celebrating Christmas. Easter is what sets Christmas apart. The first written attestation of Advent dates to the fourth century. It’s a word that originates from the Latin adventus meaning coming. Advent is both a season to commemorate Christ’s first coming at Bethlehem as well as preparing for his return. This would explain why many sermons in the early days of Advent focused on His second coming.

Advent is a season of waiting. Many churches mark the four Sundays of Advent by lighting Advent wreathes just as Christians track the days at home with advent calendars. Waiting doesn’t come easy to us. Most of us hate to wait. Perhaps you are in such a season as you wait for a relationship to mend, a job to materialize, or a memory to heal. And no amount of hurry will make things happen.

For the next twenty-five days in Prayers from the Cloud, we will intentionally prepare for Christ’s coming. I encourage you to take this journey with us. Remembering our Savior’s coming at Bethlehem is a dress rehearsal for his anticipated return. Come, Lord Jesus, come into our hearts and homes this Advent season. Today, as we mark the first Sunday in Advent, we join in a 10th-century Gregorian prayer:

Stir up your power,
O Lord Christ and come.
Rescue and protect us
from the threatening perils
of our sins by your might,
for you live and reign
with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.

A Collection of Prayers, Historic Collect for the First Sunday in Advent, Gregorian, 10th century.

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.