Advent Candle Blessings 2016-3rd Sunday
Third Sunday of Advent
Candle and flame. Light and relationship. Our third Advent Candle burns with the desire of the God-who-waits that we yield our substance to the flame of his love in relationship. Relationship which takes its expression in how we relate to God’s presence in us, in others and in the circumstances that make up our lives. We have moved from experiencing God in our depths, to experiencing God in his creation and now are invited to union with himself through union and relationship with other human beings. This week our third candle will shed its glow by becoming relationship of flame and candle. God is love, St. John proclaims, and everyone who lives in love, lives in God and God in that one. Flame and candle. Light and relationship. May we burn brightly with the love of the God-who-waits for us and welcome humbly and warmly each person whom God sends into our lives. It is his eyes that look out to us from others. It is his needs we serve in the person of another. It is the love of the God-who-waits that surrounds us and yearns for us to be warmth and light to others through us in humility and service.