First Sunday in Advent with Ignatius: And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Very Flesh, yet Spirit too;
Uncreated, and yet born;
God-and-Man in One agreed,
Very-Life-in Death indeed,
Fruit of God and Mary’s seed;
At once impassible and torn
By pain and suffering here below:
Jesus Christ, whom as our Lord we know. (Extracted from his letter to the Ephesians. See Maxwell Staniforth, ed. and Andrew Louth, rev. ed., The Apostolic Fathers: Early Christian Writings. New York: Penguin Classics, 1987, p.63. The editors note that the rhythmic tone of this Ignatian passage suggests an excerpt from an early hymn.)
Lectionary for 2 December 2007, the First Sunday in Advent:
Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122:1-9
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44
Prayer: Gracious Father, in our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of Mary, we find for our poor humanity the fulness of our peace and for our discord the perfection of reconciliation and we hope with great hope because of this. We trust you to claim and bless every sigh of gladness along with every ragged breath of grief. We thank you that in the incarnation of your very self with us, our lives are recast into the blessed relationship Jesus has with you as Father in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We pray through Christ, with Christ, in Christ whose coming sets all that’s askew on the edge of great joy and we feel it and we wait for its fulfilment with every note of praise, worship and thanksgiving. Amen.