St Peters RC Church Hamilton

“...Jesus Christ our Lord, is a life giving Spirit...those who were born from above are as the One who now reigns in heaven. We shall be like the Man who came from heaven, Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 45, 48, 49 The Truth)

“Through Jesus, God created the entire universe, and He is the One who shines with God’s own glory. When He became Man He expressed God’s nature perfectly.” (Hebrews 1 v 2, 3 The Truth)

O Lord, how can we ever make properly ready to receive You in all Your holy glory? This is an awesome task we are to undertake. Please send the Holy Spirit to spur on our efforts towards making good progress in

holiness.

Dearest Father, we can see that Your Son, the beloved One, has to live in our heart, mind, will and conscience if He is to be the light of the world brightly shining amongst us.

All prophecy is truth, and it strikes me that this is never more so than when the sacred Scriptures state that the Light of Jesus, Your Word of life to us, Father God, had come “...but the darkness did not want the

Light, and so did not receive Him.” (John 1 v 5)

So much of the world still lives in spiritual darkness. Thank You for gifting Your church, the body of believers in the Lord Jesus, this special season of Advent, a time of preparation.

We prepare by praying, reflecting upon what has gone wrong in our own life to take us away from You. Have we been simply too busy about our own agendas to stop and try to answer the bigger question as to why we

are here?

Have we become obsessed by other worldly matters like making money? Have we worshipped idols like celebrity? Have we prayed regularly? Do we study the sacred Word, the biblical narrative?

Do we avail ourselves sacramentally sufficiently, especially that of meeting with our Saviour Brother intimately, through His real presence in the Holy Eucharist? Have we approached this honour reverently?

O Lord, Father of mercy, what is wrong with us? Where have we failed You? Why have we failed You? But now is the time of Advent, a time earmarked for more than usual eagerness in awaiting the revelation that we are Your children.

Jesus will come to us at Christmas, to reveal we are Your chosen children. Please do not let us spend our Advent without making the necessary spiritual preparation for the Lord Jesus’ arrival. Perhaps we could make this a time for extra prayer. Please send Your Spirit to help us.

As we prepare for Christmas, please can the Holy Spirit also equip us to think about our Saviour’s return, His final coming, when Your plan for mankind’s salvation will be fully realised.

For this to happen, we have, all of us, to put our hope in the Lord Jesus, putting on His way of life in faith, having been baptised. “All those who have been baptised into Christ have been clothed with Christ.”

(Galatians 3 v 27 The Truth)

Let us then, live as if this is the case, striving to allow the Light of holy love to shine from us, to shine amongst us, “...for all of us in Christ Jesus are made one with You, Lord God.” (based on v 28)

You intended that when we belong to Christ we should be heirs of all that is promised. How ridiculous, how utterly foolish to squander all of this where we find hope, peace and joy through living according to Jesus’

law of love.

Please help us by the Holy Spirit, to overcome our ingrained faults and failings because we make Advent a special time of prayerful preparation to receive the Light of the world.

Let us more firmly resolve to live for the intentions of the Sacred Heart of the Lord Jesus, that heart of perfect love who will live and die and rise again, all for us. We can be sanctified, only by being united with Christ Jesus.

Come, Holy Spirit of faith, help us to pray. Pray and repent. Pray with the resolve to do a lot better in the future. Pray to set the record straight. Come, shape us more and more to live like Jesus.

We must make reparation for our sinfulness. Show us how and grant us the resolve to do so. Let us move towards the time that whatever we desire, decide, plan, think, do or say, will be all for the glory of the

Trinity.

The Lord Jesus comes to make us holy. Please encourage and advance this high calling, for it is our responsibility to reflect the love shining from Jesus, the Light of God’s glory.

This is what life is gifted us for. Do not let us waste this opportunity of a special time of preparation. Please unite our heart and mind to the holy heart of the Lord Jesus, God’s Word to be relied upon, honoured and

fully obeyed.

Our lukewarmness, our half heartedness will not do, it is insufficient because holiness is pure, is love fully shown, is godly goodness. Let us then strive after this prayerfully and practically in full earnest.

We will not do this without You, Holy Spirit, Lord, for we cannot. Thank You that at Jesus’ First Coming He gifted You to us to be like Himself, with us forever. For as we were brought back into God’s favour at the

highest price of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are called to glorify our Father in our actions and in our spirits as Jesus claims us as His own.

Repentant and earnest in prayer, as we make ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus, God made Man as the light of the world, let us also think about the second coming.

Should we not pray for Jesus’ return to usher in the final flourish of His Kingdom in all power, authority, victory over satan and the glory of the outcome of Jesus’ holy life and sacrificial death.

Let us then look forwards and pray to bring about the time when the Light of holy love will shine without hint of a blemish because we live in Jesus’ holiness, our all being His. We belong to the Light of the world.

Let us pray and say ‘Maranatha’. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come in all Your glory to claim us for our Father.

You are His triumph and with no more darkness of sin we will rejoice. This is our prayer in the Spirit, ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come!’ Amen.