Meditation for the Second Sunday of Advent

 Meditation for the Second Sunday of Advent: 

The second candle of Advent:  the Candle of Peace.

In kindling its flame we choose to stand in the purifying fire of Divine Peace.

For this Peace is no mere cessation of conflict, though that is indeed one of its fruits;

but an annual eternal journey into a way of being that is both ever ancient and ever new.

It is a Peace which restores and then surpasses our original blessing in the wedding of humanity and divinity we call Incarnation.

This Peace is at once a resting and re-setting of our whole being in Shalom: Divine Peace.

This is the kind of peace we long for, the peace we are made for and the peace that this world can never give, though those who yearn for it truly will find its seeds sown in the field of the world as His parting gift. 

Tonight this purple pillared flame beckons us on a journey of Peace.

Burning away all false peace within us until we are empty of all desire but that which calls across the endless ages and reveals the fundamental longing for communion with the One who is Love, who is Peace, who simply IS and in whose Holy Communion we find in turn the fullness of communion with all creation, with all that is in the embrace of the One who is Emmanuel: God with us… the Prince of Peace.

So this is our heavenly Peace for which there is no price too high to pay, no loss too great to suffer in order that we may touch its healing fire and yet all that Love angel-asks in return is simply be of good will towards all… short words we hear each year for the life long journey to Bethlehem’s blessing… 

So then we pray let this candle be a light guiding our feet into the way of Peace.