Daily Reading for December 21 • The Fourth Sunday of Advent
Heavenly Father
you chose the Virgin Mary
to be the mother of our Lord and Saviour:
fill us with your grace
that in all things we may, like her,
accept your holy will
and with her rejoice in your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, from An Anglican Prayer Book 1989 of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa.
Loving God, who places us in families that we may experience and grow in love,
give us grace in the midst of our days to ponder your loving kindness
and to reflect on the love that has come to us through others.
Help us, like Mary, to treasure your presence in the unique situations of our lives,
and give us grace to show your love to those who have not known it.
We ask this in the name of him who came among us helpless
and first learned love through his mother. Amen.
From Mary’s Hours: Daily Prayer with the Mother of God by Penelope Duckworth. Copyright © 2009. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org