Thought for the week Advent 4

Christmas coming.

This Christmas, Lord,
Take a corner of my life and steal in…
Invade the busyness of doing
with the quiet of you coming.
This Christmas, Lord,
take a corner of my mind and steal in…
illuminate the darkness of my thinking
with the brightness of your seeing.
This Christmas, Lord,
take a corner of my heart and steal in…
infuse the coldness of my loving
with the warmth of your Being.
This Christmas, Lord,
as at Bethlehem stable, come and steal in…
take the unprepared places of my life

and make them fit for your dwelling.
Amen.
Source unknown


Luke 1.39–45, (46–55)

Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry,
‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy.

And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’