My favorite Advent tradition is reading daily scripture passages that start with creation and cover all the major episodes in salvation history through the birth of Christ. I hope you will enjoy sharing these readings at your dinner table with the lighted Advent wreath as much as I have over the years.
Your light will come, O Jerusalem. The Lord will dawn on you in radiant beauty. We shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. The sign of the cross shall appear in the heavens, when our lord shall come to judge the world. ----A Prayer Book of Catholic Devotions
Day 5: Melchisadek
Ornament: Bread and Wine
Reading: {Short form in brackets}
{Genesis 14:17-20}
Psalm 110:4
Hebrews 5:6-10
Abram Blessed by Melchizedek
17 After his return from the defeat of Ched-or-lao′mer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchiz′edek[a] king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
maker of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
what a lovely advent tradition...
ReplyDeleteIt's my favorite!
DeleteAhh, shoot. I was afraid this would happen. The list of readings that I have for the Jesse Tree, obtained from our church bulletin years ago, lists "Offering of Isaac" for today (Gen 22:1-19) and my ornament is a ram. I wonder if ours will cross paths again.
ReplyDeleteYou might be one ahead of me from now on! This list has readings for the longest possible Advent + the O Antiphons. I think we have used all of them only once! We generally skip the last few for the Antiphons, but it would be better to pull out a couple of readings from the middle which may be what happened at your parish.
DeleteI have the right number between now and Christmas. Do you put two on some days?
DeleteThe only time we put two on is when we were busy and missed the day before. :-) As I said, we never get through the whole list either because Advent is shorter or we miss some days, but you can put two on if mine is different. ;-) Evidently, there are lots of different versions out there.
Delete