Opening Prayer Series: 3rd Sunday of Advent Year A

OPENING PRAYER SERIES:

THE MASS OPENING PRAYER SERIES ICON.

OPENING PRAYER

The Opening Prayer of the Third Sunday of Advent Year A reads as follows:

Let us pray,

(that God will fill us with joy at the coming of Christ)

Lord God, 

may we, your people, who look forward to the birthday of Christ 

experience the joy of salvation

and celebrate that feast with love and thanksgiving. 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

In making this prayer tangible, the following reflection questions emerged:

1.            What hindrances/sins/weaknesses do we have which prevents God filling us with joy?

2.            Why do we not look forward to the birthday of Christ? Has materialism and the stress of the tinsel overtaken us?

3.            How can I really look forward to the birthday of Christ? 

4.            What present will I give Christ on His birthday?

5.            What steps can I take to celebrate Christmas with love and thanksgiving in my heart?

GOSPEL REFLECTION:

In this gospel, Jesus tells John's disciples to look and hear the signs- "the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor. He then adds Happy is the man who does not lose faith in me".

In this Advent season and indeed throughout the year, there are many times we can be blind, lame, a leper needing cleansing and deaf and yes, even dead. We can take heart because if we do not lose faith in Jesus, then we can go to Him with our blindness, deafness, leprosy of body and soul and perhaps even deadness of soul due to mortal sin and ask Him to raise to us life.

Jesus also tells the people about John- He asks them what did they go out to see- something we need to ask ourselves too- what do we seek?  We need to follow Christ. John was the last of the prophets and had the important role of pointing the way to the people to Christ. We too can be messengers and point the way to Christ to others- show them the signs by the way we live and move and have our being and then, with God's grace, they may also ask the same question: What do I seek?