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.
