God of love, help us to hear your knock on the door to our hearts so that we may not fail to be invited to your eternal banquet. Amplify in us the spirit of courage and love so that we may surrender our tendencies toward moral dysfunction and prideful self-indulgence. Give us the wisdom we need to face the problems of our world, our families, ourselves with radical honesty and appropriate sensitivity. Keep our heads from the sands so we may address the real improprieties we find around us. Let us work to heal at least one wound this Advent. Amen.
(Thomas Merton)

8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the people of the world revere him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations;
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance.
Psalm 33 New International Version

Readings for today from the Daily Lectionary
(click on underlined link to go directly to the reading):
Amos 7:10-17 – Revelation 1:9-16 - Matthew 22:34-46