Sunday, December 7 – Advent Day 8 (Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus, Voices United #2, verse 2)
Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art,
dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.
Advent Engagement: As you contemplate how God longs to console and strengthen you, find a way to bring comfort and joy into someone else’s day ... then quietly give thanks.
My desire today, strong and consoling Jesus, is to joyfully embrace the peace you offer
so freely, along with your invitation to share that peace in some tangible way with another.

Monday, December 8 – Advent Day 9 (Hope Is a Star, Voices United #7, verse 2)
Peace is a ribbon that circles the earth giving a promise of safety and worth.
When God is a child there’s joy in our song.
The last shall be first and the weak shall be strong, and none shall be afraid.
Advent Engagement: Find out more about one way your church participates in a ministry of peace, “promising safety and worth” to others. Light the peace candle on your wreathe and, feeling Christ’s strength within, ask how you might help.
Child of Peace, may your birth story touch my heart anew today
and fill my life with joy in sharing your peace.

Tuesday, December 9 – Advent Day 10 (The World God Imagines, Then Let Us Sing, #126, verse 1)
The lion and bear, like the cattle will graze, this is the world God imagines.
When wolf lies with lamb we will all be amazed, this is the world God imagines.
No hurt or destruction in this holy place where justice and peace are flowing free.
The earth will be full of the knowledge of God: this is the world God imagines.
Advent Engagement: Isaiah 11 weaves this image of carnivores and herbivores living in peace together…
an imaginative sign of God’s promise being fulfilled. How might you participate in creating the world God imagines through this season and beyond?
Lord of imagination and promise, help me see ‘outside the box’ and live more creatively
in search of fresh, peace-filled responses to challenging situations I feel are impossible.

Wednesday, December 10 – Advent Day 11 (Oh, How Joyfully, Voices United #57, verse 2)
Oh, how joyfully, oh, how peacefully, sleeps the world on Christmas night!
Sins are covered, grace discovered. In our darkness shines the light!
Advent Engagement: One clear promise of our Advent/Christmas season is God’s forgiveness for all, revealed in Jesus. What personal darkness within you longs for Christ’s light to shine? Welcome the sacred promise and discover the gift of grace.
Holy Light, shine forgiveness into my life
and help me trust in the peace you freely offer.

Thursday, December 11 – Advent Day 12 (Love Us into Fullness, More Voices #81, verse 3)
Love us into fullness, and we will be strong;
Jesus, walk beside us, fill our hearts with song.
Advent Engagement: Take a few minutes today and open your heart to a carol that inspires your Advent journey. Sing it or listen to it throughout the day and feel Christ’s presence strengthening you.
Source of life-fulfilling love, I sometimes find myself losing focus on my spiritual journey.
Thank you for accompanying me along the way and filling my heart with song.

Friday, December 12 – Advent Day 13 (Silent Night, Holy Night, Voices United #67, verses 1 ... 2)
Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright ...
glories stream from heaven afar, heavenly hosts sing Hallelujah,
Christ the Saviour is born, Christ the Saviour is born!
Advent Engagement: Go for a walk tonight. Feel the cool, calm air on your face. See in the nighttime
brightness how heaven proclaims the blessing being born in you. Share your gratitude with God and someone else.
God of all creation, walking outside tonight I feel you all around…
I see you in the starlit sky and silently breathe you in with every breath.

Saturday, December 13 – Advent Day 14 (God in the Darkness, More Voices #17, verse 3)
God in the darkness, God of holy dreaming,
giver of hope, and pledge of our redeeming,
Spirit of truth, our memory and meaning, come and renew us.
Advent Engagement: Remembering Mary’s vision and Joseph’s dream in the Bible stories, imagine how God might come to you this Advent.
Spirit of Truth, help me remember the ways you have revealed your promises
to people of faith throughout the ages and renew in me a similar hope for renewal.

Sunday, December 14 – Advent Day 15 (Jesus Came Bringing Us Hope, More Voices #33, “Joy”)
Jesus came bringing us joy. Jesus came bringing us joy.
Jesus came bringing us joy, hallelujah forevermore!
Advent Engagement: As you light your Advent candle of joy this week, rekindle the feelings of Christmas joy you remember; then bring that joy to others in Jesus’ Spirit.
I praise you, God of Christmas, for the goodness you stir up within me during this season
and for the joy I feel when imagining how I will give it to others. Hallelujah!

Monday, December 15 – Advent Day 16 (Jesus, Our Brother, Voices United #56, verse 1)
Jesus, our brother, kind and good was humbly born in a stable rude,
and the friendly beasts around him stood, Jesus, our brother, kind and good.
Advent Engagement: The fantasy of stable animals recognizing the Christ child and intentionally bringing him gifts could awaken your own place in this season’s story. Remembering Jesus as you stand on the threshold this Christmas, what feels natural and sincere for you to humbly offer your brothers and sisters?
Spirit of Humble Generosity, breathe your grace in me that I may be
an instrument of kindness during these waning days of Advent.

Tuesday, December 16– Advent Day 17 (In a Far-off Place, Then Let Us Sing, #132, verse 1)
In a far-off place, Jesus comes to earth. Sheep and cattle grace the site.
As the angel songs begin, like the whisper of the wind, nature’s joy (hope) awakes again; Jesus comes.
Advent Engagement: The last verse of this carol ends with this encouraging image: “... to a world that needs him still, Jesus comes.” Can you imagine a way to bring needed joy to someone who still longs for it this season, as Jesus’ partner in grace?
Come to me, encouraging Jesus, and invite me anew to join you in sharing
God’s goodness, especially with those who may not be feeling it this season.

Wednesday, December 17 – Advent Day 18 (Once in Royal David’s City, Voices United #62, verse 3)
(Jesus) is our life-long pattern, daily, when on earth he grew,
he was tempted, scorned, rejected, tears and smiles like us he knew.
Thus he feels for all our sadness, and he shares in all our gladness.
Advent Engagement: Prayerfully consider something that disheartens you today; and similarly, something that brings you heartwarming joy. Hold both together with Christ.
Companioning Christ, may both my sadness and gladness lead to blessing in your presence.

Thursday, December 18 – Advent Day 19 (Dream a Dream, More Voices #158, verse 2)
Dream a time, this Christmas time, when no one’s hungry or afraid;
that weapons go and harvests grow, that friends are met and made.
Advent Engagement: What are you dreaming for this Christmas? ... in your family? ... among your friends? ... within your church? ... around your neighbourhood?... throughout Canada and the world? Do one thing this week to help your dream come true.
Living Christ, help me dream grace-filled dreams for others
and stimulate my desire to help bring them to life.

Friday, December 19 – Advent Day 20 (Herald! Sound the Note of Gladness, V0ices United #28, verses 1…2)
Herald! Sound the note of gladness! Tell the news that Christ is here;
... turning us from sin and sadness, till once more we sing the song.
Sound the trumpet! Tell the message! Christ the Saving One has come.
Advent Engagement: Sound the note of gladness. Give someone a call today and share a good news story from this season. Be both the message and the messenger.
Saving One, give me voice to bring joy to those around me.

Saturday, December 20 – Advent Day 21 (Joy to the World, Voices United #59, verse 4)
He rules the earth with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love.
Advent Engagement: Christ invites you, like the nations, to prove the glories of Godly righteousness and the wonders of Sacred love in your everyday life. What would it mean to commit to that today?
Help me, O Sacred Role Model, to become living proof
of truth, grace, righteousness and love in your name.

Sunday, December 21 – Advent Day 22 (We Wait for God, Then Let Us Sing, #57, verse 4)
We worship God, the people pray that love will cast out fear.
We wait and watch to work and see the Day of God draw near.
We worship God, the people pray, the Day of God draws near.
Advent Engagement: As this Advent season of waiting and watching draws to a close, consider how worshiping with your church family reassures your faith and bolsters your desire to cooperate in bringing Christ’s blessing to others.
My prayers today are for the sisters and brothers with whom I worship.
Draw near to us all, waiting God, as we prepare to welcome Jesus among us,
and inspire my faith community to work collaboratively in his loving Spirit.

Monday, December 22 – Advent Day 23 (People, Look East, Voices United #9 verse 1)
People, look east. The time is near of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able, trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today: Love the guest is on the way.
Advent Engagement: In making your final Christmas preparations, resist the temptation of letting busy-ness get in the way of embracing the One at the centre of your celebration. Welcome Love as both Guest and Host of your festivities.
On this shortest day of the year, I acknowledge how much I long for your Light.
Help me, Christ, to imagine how Loving-light will grow in me during these days.

Tuesday, December 23 – Advent Day 24 (A Light Is Gleaming, Voices United #82, verse 3)
And Jesus showed us a brighter path to walk. He showed us things we hadn’t seen.
Now we, like Jesus can help creation shine, and this will be a sign:
A light is gleaming spreading its arms throughout the night, living in the light.
Come share its gladness, God’s radiant love is burning bright, living in the light.
Advent Engagement: When you light your Advent candle today, promise to journey in anticipation of the Christ-Light shining through the commonplace ... and live in that Light.
O Radiant Love, brighten my path and warm my heart
that I might share my gladness with others.

Wednesday, December 24 – Christmas Eve (O Little Town of Bethlehem, Voices United #64, verse 1)
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by;
yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light;
the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
Advent Engagement: On this Christmas Eve, how do the words, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight, touch your soul? Feel deep within you how hope and fear rest together in the peace-filled heart of Jesus. Trust the blessing.
O Everlasting Light, shine in me and illuminate my faith
so I might fall asleep with the assurance of your love being born in me anew.

Thursday, December 25 – Christmas Day (Good Christian Friends Rejoice, Voices United #35, verse 2)
Good Christian friends rejoice with heart and soul and voice!
Now we hear of endless bliss: Jesus Christ was born for this!
He has opened heaven’s door, and we are blest forevermore.
Advent Engagement: Pause long enough to consider what your greatest joy is on Christmas day. Spiritually, how does that joyful feeling nurture your faith in Christ’s presence with you today? What difference does that make?
Living Christ, may your passion for living joyfully, enthusiastically, and faithfully
in every moment inspire me to gift others with the same divine love you lived on earth.

Friday, December 26 – Boxing Day (Child of Spirit, Child of Light, Then Let Us Sing, #131, verse 1/5)
Child of spirit, child of light, warming hearts in coldest places, bringing joy to cheerless faces,
that each one of us knows peace in our time and in our place.
Christmas Engagement: The Christ-child is born in you – what gift will you now offer others in your daily living, in your time and place? Take a prayerful moment and open your heart to the possibilities. Answer the question through some act of grace today.
Christ of Spirit, Christ of Light, help me shine with peace-filled kindness
throughout this day, this season and this new year.

Saturday, December 27 – The 3rd Day of Christmas (O Ancient Love, Voices United, #17, verse 1)
O ancient love, processing through the ages; O hidden love, revealed in human form,
O promised love, the dream of seers and sages: O living love, within our hearts be born.
Christmas Engagement: Share the gifts of Christmas with all in your orbit and extend that gesture of goodwill to as many others as possible for these 12 days.
Thank you, O Living Love, for the gifts Jesus shared with so many throughout the ages,
for the invitation to partner with him in this generation,
and for the desire to fulfill the sacred promise revealed in him.

Sunday, December 28 – The 4th Day of Christmas (God Calls You Good, Then Let Us Sing, #10, verses 1 & 2)
God calls you good, beloved child. You are a treasure deeply prized.
And you can say to every doubting voice, “God calls you good, beloved child.”
God calls me good, beloved child. I am a treasure deeply prized.
And I can say to every doubting voice, “God calls me good, beloved child.”
Christmas Engagement: This baptismal hymn can also remind us of Jesus’ first days of life on earth when he was presented in the temple and called “holy to the Lord.” (Luke 2:23). Yet the lyrics also affirm that every child born is called good, including you. Pause right now and pray that second stanza.
God, help me remember that you call me good, beloved and treasured,
and trust that, when those doubting voices (including my own)
tempt me to believe otherwise, I will reclaim your blessing.