Reading & Meditation Faith by Rev. Teresa Stuefloten M.Div. 12/7/2025

This is the second Sunday of the Advent season. Each Sunday we light a candle. You may light an actual candle or light an imaginary candle in your heart. Last week we lit the first candle for Hope. Let’s take a moment to relight the candle of Hope.

Now we move to our candle for the second week of Advent, the candle representing Faith. The scripture reading for today is from Luke 1, verses 38 and 45-47. “Mary said, Here I am, a handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. And the angel went away from her.”

“And blessed is she who believed; for there will be a fulfillment of the things which were spoken to her from the Lord. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord. And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’

Now we will light the candle representing Faith.

This week we keep in mind the faith that moves mountains, heals the sick, and raises the dead. Let us affirm: “Faith is quickened in me now, and is empowering my thoughts, words, and everything I do.”

Meditation

Now I invite you to prepare to go within for a short time of meditation, letting go of worries or concerns for this time, getting comfortable, closing your eyes with your inner gaze raised to the center of the forehead, turning your attention to your breath, gently noticing the in-breath and the out-breath… feeling the coolness of the in-breath and the warmth of the out-breath… allowing the breath to sink down into the belly with each in-breath… expanding the belly with each in-breath and contracting the belly with each out-breath… coming into the present moment through the breath now, completely awake and aware…

God is right here, right now, omnipresent, everywhere present…

Right where I am in every moment, God is right here…

God is Divine Life…

God is my very life…

I have faith that I am never alone…

God is always present, within me and all around me…

I live and move and have my being in God…

God is Divine Love…

God’s Divine Love is expressing in me and through me…

God is Divine Light…

God’s Divine Light is shining in me and through me…

I am a being of shining Divine Light…

I have faith in God’s presence within me and all around me…

I have faith in God’s Divine Love and Light…

God is the Source and Substance of all creation…

The mountains, the oceans, the rivers, the prairies, the lakes are all God expressing Divine Life…

The air that I breathe and the sun that warms me are God expressing as Divine Life…

The earth, the sky, the stars and planets are all God expressing as Divine Life…

All of the creatures on Mother Earth, those that walk, those that crawls, those that fly, and those that swim are all God expressing as Divine Life…

God loves It’s creation and I have faith in God as Divine Life…

All of creation is alive in Divine Love and Light…

And I am alive in Divine Love and Light…

I am grateful that my life is supported in every moment by God’s Divine presence, Love and Light…

My heart is filled with gratitude and faith…

We will go into silence now for one minute…

Now, having rested in the silence, I invite you to bring yourself back to awareness of the body, feeling gratitude for the Divine blessings and support that are always yours in the present moment. You are a Divine expression of Love and Light. Today, as a child of God, live from the faith that you are perfect, whole and complete in God, living, moving and having your being in God. And so it is!