Advent Prayer for Dec. 20

Moonless Darkness Stands Between

Gerard Manley Hopkins (19^th century)

 

Moonless darkness stands between.

Past, the Past, no more be seen!

But the Bethlehem star may lead me

To the sight of Him who freed me

From the self that I have been.

Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy;

Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly;

Now beginning, and always,

Now begin, on Christmas day.

 

            As Manley suggests in the last line of his prayer, the marking of a holy day such as Christmas can provide the impetus to a new beginning, a beginning in which the past is no more seen.  We know that we need not wait for any special day to pray a prayer of repentance, but Christmas can become a time when our hearts are stirred to seek after the purity and holiness of Christ in a way we have not done before.

             The danger is that the coming of Christmas will find us far from that awareness, with a hectic pace that tempts us to add one more purchase or one more party to our already overburdened lives.  While Hopkins never experienced a 21^st century lifestyle, his reminder of the role of the Bethlehem star in his own experience of freedom can be ours as well.  We can be freed from “the self that I have been,” particularly when that self is far from pure, far from meek.  ‘Would you be free from your burden of sin?” the songwriter asks.  There is “power in the blood,” power in the One who came in the light of the Bethlehem star.

             

Prayer Focus:  freedom to be Christ’s