Advent Prayer: Luke 1: 39-56

Here’s an Advent prayer from Dr. Susan M. (Elli) Elliott’s Sermons & Prayers website. It was inspired by Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1:39-56.

A Prayer for use with the Magnificat
(inspired by Luke 1:39-56)

Great God of the prophets and truth-tellers,
Great Voice of Truth who speaks through unexpected voices,
Great Power of the Universe who works mighty deeds
        from fragile possibilities,
   we gather here to know Your presence and to listen for Your truth.
   We listen in Your presence. We listen for You.

Let our listening reach to hear the voice of young Mary.
Let us listen for her voice,
   the voice of an adolescent girl in an insignificant village
        in a marginal province,
   far from the centers of power.

Extend our listening to hear her where she may be speaking today:
   an adolescent girl in a village in rural China
        whose parents really wanted a boy;
   a girl in a remote native village in Latin America
        leading the singing in a small church;
   a 14-year-old working for a tiny wage in a crowded factory somewhere
making our high-priced running shoes;
   a 15-year-old helping her village in West Africa recover from civil war;
   a high school student in a U.S. city
        resisting a culture of violence daily to attend school.

Extend our listening, God,
   to hear the song of truth and hope You are putting in their mouths.
Extend our listening, God,
to sense the motion of a future You are moving in their midst,
   a future world put right.
Extend our listening, God,
   that we may receive and affirm and listen
        with the eager ears of elderly Elizabeth,
   wise with years of waiting.

Let us listen fully and deeply for the hope You are preparing.
Let us greet Your hope with the Elizabeth’s joy greeting Mary.
Let us feel the future moving in us as well.
Let us listen fully and deeply for the hope You are preparing in us.
Let us listen deeply to the truth speaking in us.
Let us listen fully to the hope You place in us.

Extend our listening
   to the deepest reaches of our own souls, God of Truth.
Extend our listening through the cares
    that each of us brings on our hearts this morning.
Extend our listening through the financial worries
      and the preoccupations with our health,
   our concern for loved ones whose lives are straying out of control,
   our angers and aggravations, our inundation with activity.
Extend our listening into all that we bring today
   to hear there the transforming truth about our lives.
Extend our listening until we listen with all that we are, our whole beings.
Extend our listening until we hear with Your whole voice.
Extend our listening until we become the voice that speaks as Mary to say,
   “My soul magnifies God and my spirit rejoices.”
May the listening of our souls enlarge Your listening
   until we truly hear You from unexpected places
        in the farthest reaches of the earth
   and the most remote territories of our own souls.
   Extend our listening that we may magnify You.

~ written by Dr. Susan M. (Elli) Elliott, December 12, 2004. If you use this material, please credit Dr. Susan M. (Elli) Elliott. Source: http://ellielliott.webs.com/sermonsprayers.htm