Alliance for Catholic Education
We invite you to a series for the ACE and Catholic school community to notice the ways God cultivates growth in our hearts, our classrooms, and our communities as we prepare for Christ’s coming.
Week 3 Scripture:
The desert and the parched land will exult;
the steppe will rejoice and bloom.
They will bloom with abundant flowers,
and rejoice with joyful song....
Strengthen the hands that are feeble,
make firm the knees that are weak,
say to those whose hearts are frightened:
Be strong, fear not!
Here is your God.....
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.
Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return
and enter Zion singing,
crowned with everlasting joy...
sorrow and mourning will flee.
(adapted from Isaiah 35: 1-10)
Week 3 Prayer:
God of our Joy,
you gift us each Advent with Gaudete Sunday,
this mid-winter renewal of joy,
which comes to us from the promise of our coming salvation --
the birth of your Son,
whose first dawning rays even now we begin to glimpse.
Allow our minds, hearts, and bodies to strengthen -- even leap with joy -- as we receive the gift
of Hope that these coming days promise.
For "the Lord has indeed ransomed us and crowned us with everlasting joy!"
