Advent: Week 2
Light 2 Purple Candles
Leader: God, come to my assistance.
All: Lord, make haste to help me.
Leader: Lord, Open my lips.
All: And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Leader: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
All: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Leader: A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew.
All: Glory to you, O Lord.
Leader:
John the Baptist started preaching in the desert of Judea. He said, “Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”
From Jerusalem and all Judea and from the Jordan River Valley crowds of people went to John. They told how sorry they were for their sins, and he baptized them in the river.
John said to them: “I baptize you with water so that you will give up your sins. But someone more powerful is going to come, and I am not good enough even to carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
The Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
In our reading today, we hear John telling the people to “Turn back to God!” John the Baptist was getting the people ready for Jesus by baptizing them with water. John reminds us that we need to really think and pray about our relationship with Jesus. Are we feeling close to Jesus right now? Or are there things that are making our hearts feel heavy…things we need to ask forgiveness for…unloving choices that we have made that are keeping our hearts from being close to Jesus? John reminds us that all we have to do is ask Jesus to forgive us, and He will…every time. In this 2nd week of Advent, our candle represents Peace. Let’s each name one thing we need to do to make our hearts more peaceful. (Ask forgiveness? Show kindness to someone? Forgive someone else?) Then, let’s think of one way our family can spread that Peace to others this week (giving a hug/smile, using kind words, helping people in need).
Using the words Jesus gave us, we ask God to be with us in a special way as we spread Peace in our world this week. Our Father…. Amen.
