4th Sunday in Pentecost
December 19th, 2020
Welcome to the 4th Sunday of Advent from St Paul’s Cathedral Sale in this video.
Advent is about love. We are social beings. That is our blessing and our curse. We long for each other. We long to touch, to share, to bare some part of ourselves, to be understood, to invite others into our lives. We all long to lessen the loneliness that lurks in the background of even our most crowded moments. We reach out with fragile, delicate efforts of love. We can hurt each other. Hearts can be broken. Rejection can come. Love, and the vulnerability that comes with it, can be the riskiest business of all. But there is no love without such risks. Like hunger and thirst, the longing for love is implanted deeply within us, and God offers us many opportunities to care, to reach out, and to love. Love is always a risk, but it is a risk upon which the very heart of our life depends. To love is to touch the heart of God. Even to feel the ache of a heart broken for love is to discover God’s grace. Help us, O God, to reveal your love as we discover anew the tremendous power of the Christmas story and meet again the Christ-child, born anew among us. Amen and Amen.
This week, the Revd Dr Dean Spalding talks of the hope we hold as Christians in our journey of faith, especially poignant as we await celebrating the birth of Christ each Christmas.
Bishop Richard presides at the Eucharist, with the Revd Heather Toms assisting.
The tradition of ‘spiritual communion’ may be helpful as you watch and listen to this Eucharist, and at the point of distribution of the Sacrament you could say the following prayer: O Lord Jesus Christ, through your tender mercy grant that as the hem of your garment, touched in faith, healed the woman who could not touch your body, so the soul of this your servant may be healed by like faith in you, whom I cannot now sacramentally receive. In union with the faithful at every altar-table in your Church I desire to be united with you, and pray that you will come spiritually into my heart. Let nothing ever separate me from your love, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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