Minute Missions for Advent
Make Advent count, using our small daily ‘missions’ to shape your journey!
Click on the dates below each image to access ways to be ‘missionary’ right where you are – with simple daily acts of prayer, reflection, giving or connection.
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’
– Isaiah 2:1-5
This passage from Isaiah reminds us that preparing a way is both an active and communal task. Let us go, all of us together, walking towards the Lord, ready to learn.
The first week of Advent is all about hope. Think of one place in the world that needs hope. Hold it before God as you pray the Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory Be.
Listen to children in Cameroon singing our Advent Carol We are waiting, and share it on your social media or with friends!
If you’d like to sing the carol with your own school or community, you can use our singalong track: We are Waiting (new arrangement) – sung demo
Today is the Feast of St Francis Xavier, Patron Saint of Missionaries. Please pray for missionaries today and, if you can, donate to the Red Box to support their vital work. missio.org.uk/redbox
St John Damascene is the Patron Saint of iconographers. Sometimes an image can be a powerful tool for focusing our prayerful meditation. Choose an icon or holy picture which speaks to you and spend some time exploring the meanings and feelings it evokes.
‘To hope in life means to have a foretaste of the goal, to believe as certain what we do not yet see and touch, to trust and entrust ourselves to the love of a Father who created us because He willed us in love and wants us to be happy.’
– Pope Leo XIV
Pray: Lord help me to wait and prepare with a peaceful heart, so that I may share fully in the joy of your coming among us.
‘Many children with disabilities live in terrible poverty, their parents need to go to work and they don’t have the time or money to bring them here. We need more outreach workers to visit them in their homes and provide education and exercises.’
Mr Keo, Director of the Peace Centre in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
We can – and do – change this situation, which is replicated in many countries around the world.
Share our Christmas Appeal with others today and help missionaries bring hope to the world>>
‘The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.’
– Isaiah 11:1-10
Peace is not easy. It takes trust, forgiveness and a willingness to try something different from the paths we have trodden.
Mary, through the love which flows from your Immaculate Heart, bring peace to my soul, my home and our world. #PeaceOnEarth
On the Feast of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, we pray for all Indigenous peoples around the world, especially in the Americas. Pray the red Decade of the Mission Rosary today.
Having a safe place to stay is so important, yet so many of our sisters and brothers – like the Holy Family that first Christmas – do not have anywhere to turn. Read and share how missionaries are helping those who have had to flee their homes in Myanmar.
Click here to read about our work in Myanmar>>
Peace is the soil where we can plant a future of hope for all people. The Peace Centre in Cambodia was established after a brutal regime of fear and pain, but through it, missionaries and the community they serve are creating environments of compassion and hope for young people.
‘Let nothing frighten and afflict you or trouble your heart… Am I not here, I, who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow? Am I not your health? Are you not by chance held in my mantle?’
– Our Lady of Guadalupe
Share this candle with someone today, both to honour St Lucy and to remind them that we are all a light in the world.
‘The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.’
– Isaiah 35:1-2
Joy sometimes feels superficial or even inappropriate in the face of the world’s problems. But Isaiah reminds us here how vital it is. Joy brings resilience; it plants hope, it is water in the desert and renewal after winter has passed.
Pray: Lord, knowing you live in me, how can I fail to feel deep and lasting joy? Help me to be joy to the world, today and all the days of my life, so that through me, the world will know you. Amen.
It’s likely that Sievmey’s grandmother never thought he would be able to walk, talk and learn. But through the Peace Centre in Phnom Penh Diocese this small miracle happened. What joy his family must feel watching him grow and flourish! |
Share the joy today. Send this short film about the Peace Centre through your social media and let’s make the digital space a positive place!
Pray today for all parents and caregivers, that they will always be able to feel the joy in their vocation to nurture the next generation.
Watch and share this beautiful arrangement of Joy to the World, from the Likuni Girls’ School in Malawi.
If you enjoyed it, and would like to spread the joy even further, why not put a coin in your Red Box? Or text REDBOX5 to 70085 to donate £5 via your phone.
‘For nothing will be impossible with God’
– Luke 1:26-38
Bring this extract from today’s Gospel to mind as you reflect on a difficult or seemingly impossible problem. How do these words change your perspective?
‘And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit”.’
– Matthew 1:19
Jesus is ‘Love made Flesh’. Today we reflect on all the love, patience, kindness and trust which enabled the nativity to take place. Love makes all things possible.
As we prepare to come together in celebration of the birth of Our Lord, let us remember all who are lonely, frightened, sick or otherwise in need of God’s love at this time. Hold them in prayer before God as you recite the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.
‘Fight all error, but do it with good humour, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause.’
– St John of Kęty
St John of Kęty, pray for us.
Give hope this Christmas!
Donate to our Christmas Appeal and support missionaries and the communities they serve around the world.
‘A child is born for us, and a son is given to us; his sceptre of power rests upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Messenger of great counsel.’
– Isaiah 9:6
Whether your day is joyous and chaotic or peaceful and quiet, take a moment to reflect on how, because of today, the world is forever changed.
We wish you and the people you love a happy and holy Christmastide.