Dear God,

No one told us twenty months ago that this was going to go on soooo long.

After all, how long could it be? A week, a month, a season?

Our cheeks are chapped from wearing masks.

We’re sick of minding our social distance.

We’ve been tested, immunized, and boostered.

We miss hugs and hanging out.

We worry about friends on the frontlines; their hopes are worn thin as suture silk.

We’d love to see a holiday comedy in a packed theater while eating an enormous bucket of buttered popcorn and laughing out loud with our neighbors.

We long for the days when we went caroling — “Silent Night” and “Jingle Bells” floating through the skilled nursing corridors, stirring memories of Christmas-past.

We fear that this will never end, or if it does, there will be a new normal that isn’t nearly as spontaneous, joyful, or carefree as life once was.

We’re tired, Lord.

In this Advent season, grant us the grace to remember that you are Emmanuel, God with us in the midst of all that makes us weary.

Renew us in hope — and patience.

Could you please double up on the patience?

Through Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen.

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“But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.” — Isaiah 40:31

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