AN ADVENT PILGRIM PRAYER
Dear Jesus,
Today Advent begins,
a season to welcome your coming,
my God so near yet beyond.
Your invitation is simple and clear:
“Keep awake, therefore;
you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming.” - Mk 13:35
I eagerly await your coming, keeper of my heart.
Yet, I also hesitate for my inner landscape is both barren and unkempt.
I am torn between a tourist mindset and a pilgrim spirit.
There is much I want and need to do,
to properly prepare for your coming.
Yet in all the doings am I am easily disconnected,
missing the invitation to let the doings for you draw me
through you, with you, in you.
Please help me adopt an attitude of a pilgrim, receptive to grace,
rather than that of a tourist, consuming life experiences.
Awaken in me,
especially when my spirit is battered, distracted, or lonely,
a willingness
to pause and breathe
to pause and be
to pause and receive.
Come, Lord Jesus,
God unexplainably born in my heart,
moment by moment,
breath by breath,
whispering peace,
“I am here.”
Amen.
Photo credit: Sheri Dursin