merciful, O most compassionate, forgive us our sins and offences, our mistakes and our shortcomings. Do not dwell upon the sins of the sons and daughters who serve you, but rather make us clean with the cleansing of your truth. Direct our paths until we walk before you in holiness of heart, and our works are good and pleasing in your sight and in the sight of those who govern us. Yes, Lord, may your face shine upon us for our good; and so shall we be sheltered by your mighty hand, and saved from all wrongdoing by your out-stretched arm. Deliver us from all who hate us without reason; and to us and to all people grant peace and concord, as you did to our forebears when they called devoutly upon you in faith and truth.
Thursday after Advent 1
A Reading from The Spirit of Love by William Law
Nothing wills or works with God but the spirit of love, because nothing else works in God himself. The almighty brought forth all nature for this end only, that boundless love might have its infinity of height and depth to dwell and work in, and all the striving and working properties of nature are only to give essence and substance, life and strength, to the invisible hidden spirit of love, that it may come forth into outward activity and manifest its blessed powers, that creatures born in the strength, and out of the powers of nature, might communicate the spirit of love and goodness, give and receive mutual delight and joy to and from one another.
All below this state of love is a fall from the one life of God, and the only life in which the God of love can dwell. Partiality, self, mine, thine, etc., are tempers that can only belong to creatures that have lost the power, presence, and spirit of the universal Good. They can have no place in heaven, nor can be anywhere, but because heaven is lost. Think not, therefore, that the spirit of pure, universal love which is the one purity and perfection of heaven and all heavenly natures has been or can be carried too high or its absolute necessity too much asserted. For it admits of no degrees of higher or lower, and is not in being till it is absolutely pure and unmixed, no more than a line can be straight till it is absolutely free from all crookedness.
All the design of Christian redemption is to remove everything that is unheavenly, gross, dark, wrathful, and disordered from every part of this fallen world. And when you see earth and stones, storms and tempests, and every kind of evil, misery, and wickedness, you see that which Christ came into the world to remove, and not only to give a new birth to fallen man, but so to deliver all outward nature from its present vanity and evil and set it again in its first heavenly state. Now if you ask how came all things into this evil and vanity, it is because they have lost the blessed spirit of love which alone makes the happiness and perfection of every power of nature.
Friday after Advent 1
A Reading from a commentary on the psalms
by Augustine
‘All the trees of the forest will exult before the face of the Lord, for he has come, he has come to judge the earth.’ The Lord has come the first time, and he will come again. At his first coming, his own voice declared in the gospel: ‘Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds.’ What does he mean by ‘hereafter’? Does he not mean that the Lord will come at a future time when all the nations of the earth will be striking their breasts in grief’? Previously he came through his preachers, and he filled the whole world. Let us not resist his first coming, so that we may not dread the second.
What then should Christians do? We ought to use the world, not become its slaves. And what does this mean? It means having, as though not having. So says the Apostle: ‘Beloved, the appointed time is short: from now on let those who have wives live as though they had none; and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing; and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with this world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. But I wish you to be without anxiety.’ The one who is without anxiety waits without fear until the Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear his coming? Do we not have to blush for shame? We love him, yet we fear his coming. Are we really certain that we love him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them. He will come whether we wish it or not. Do not think that because he is not coming just now, he will not come at all. He will come, you know not when; and provided he finds you prepared, your ignorance of the time of his coming will not be held against you.
‘He will judge the world with equity and the peoples in his truth.’ What are equity and truth? He will gather together with him for the judgement his chosen ones, but the others he will set apart; for he will place some on his right, others on his left. What is more equitable, what more true than that they should not themselves expect mercy from the judge, who themselves were unwilling to show mercy before the judge’s coming. Those, however, who were willing to show mercy will be judged with mercy. For it will be said to those placed on his right: ‘Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world.’ And he reckons to their account their works of mercy: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink.’
What is imputed to those placed on his left side? That they refused to show mercy. And where will they go? ‘Depart into the everlasting fire.’ The hearing of this condemnation will cause much wailing. But what has another psalm said? ‘The just will be held in everlasting remembrance.’
Do you, because you are unjust, expect the judge not to be just? Or because you are a liar, will the truthful One not be true? Rather, if you wish to receive mercy, be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you; give of your abundance. Of whose possessions do you give, if not from his? If you were to give of your own, it would be largess but since you give of his, it is restitution. ‘For what have you that you have not received?’ These are the sacrifices most pleasing to God: mercy, humility, praise, peace, charity. Such as these, then, let us bring and, free from fear, we shall await the coming of the judge ‘who will judge the world in equity and the peoples in his truth’.
Saturday after Advent 1
A Reading from the Instructions of Columbanus
How blessed, how fortunate, are ‘those servants whom the Lord will find watchful when he comes’. Blessed is the time of waiting when we stay awake for the Lord, the Creator of the universe, who fills all things and transcends all things.
How I wish he would awaken me, his humble servant, from the sleep of slothfulness, even though I am of little worth. How I wish he would enkindle me with that fire of divine love. The flames of his love burn beyond the stars; the longing for his overwhelming delights and the divine fire ever burn within me!
How I wish I might deserve to have my lantern always burning at night in the temple of my Lord, to give light to all who enter the house of my God. Give me, I pray you, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son and my God, that love that does not fail so that my lantern, burning within me and giving light to others, may be always lighted and never extinguished.
Jesus, our most loving Saviour, be pleased to light our lanterns, that they may burn for ever in your temple, receiving eternal light from you, the eternal light, to lighten our darkness and to ward off from us the darkness of the world.
Give your light to my lantern, I beg you, my Jesus, so that by its light I may see that holy of holies which receives you as the eternal priest entering among the columns of your great temple. May I ever see you only, look on you, long for you; may I gaze with love on you alone, and have my lantern shining and burning always in your presence.
Loving Saviour, be pleased to show yourself to us who knock, so that in knowing you we may love only you,
