Michael T. McRay > Quotes

“The call of Advent is to practice putting down our desperate, human need for approval and fall in love with Jesus all over again, and to remember that nothing short of God’s love claims us. We are children of God, and that is enough.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Oh God, we thank you for the love that we receive from you. We pray that our love would move to the margins so that those whom our love finds there may transform us and increase in us the margin to love. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Advent is the beginning of the end of domination. The mighty will be brought low, the walls will fall, the prisons will burn, deportation centers will crumble, those who are occupied will inherit the earth, and the hard-fought resistance will yield reconciliation. But all of this exists in the not yet, in the going forth. And so we keep going forth, daring not to die, birthing a new world, one Advent act of resistance at a time.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“God of the thin places, of dying hope, God of the waters of forgetfulness and waters of remembrance, we remember. Though we remember often only in echoes, fragments of dreams, a half memory turning over and over in our mind, still, we do remember. We will chase the ghost of you, God, even after we have lost all reason to believe in the substance. Oh please, chase our ghost too. In the beginning you moved upon our waters— and we—we filled our lungs with you, willing to drown in your ecstasy. And now the waters are cold, and our voices echo off the endless expanse between I and thou. Can you feel our souls adrift in the poverty of our longing? Have you fallen asleep, God, while we were keeping watch? Awake, Beloved, or if you must rest, rest in our bones and wrap yourself in our weary souls. We need to come home, but for now we wait, adrift in your sleep, waiting for the dream. And that is enough for now. Amen. Jeannie Alexander”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Jesus, the impoverished refugee, you showed up in the mess, and the crap, and the stench. You told us to look for you in prison, on the streets, among the thirsty and hungry, naked and alone, those who are sick. And yet sometimes, we do all we can to avoid every one of those places and people. Convict and compel us to stop trying to get you to show up where we want to go, and instead start showing up where you told us you would always be. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Meet us here, O God of winter and waiting, O God who struggles with us and kindles our hope. Come in all your splendor and suffering. Comfort all who mourn. Let all who are crushed rise into the blooming of a new and better world. Teach us to channel our collective lament, longing, and love into a force that can raise the devastations and rebuild the ruined cities. Show us that the darkness around us and within us is a door. It is soil and we are seed. Show us that we are wick and your spirit is flame. Alone, we flicker. Together, we blaze. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Lord of all light and love, help me see Christ in every human being, no exceptions. Open my heart to what you would have me do next in Love’s name. Be my guidepost when I wake in the morning and when I lie down at night, and help me, help me, help me, Lord, to slow down, be quiet, and watch for Christ’s light in the world.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Light of life, be bright within me, be bright around me.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Amma, Make me an instrument of your fire. Make me the breath in the lungs that scream for justice. Make me the tears on a mother’s face holding the body of her child scorched by war. Make me a stone thrown at a tank. Make me the key to open cell doors. Make me the darkness to hide those fleeing across a desert. Make me the ocean that guides a refugee’s boat. Make me the scarf covering the face of Antifa. Make me a vaccination in a free clinic. Make me farmland never touched by chemicals. Make me a guitar played by a prisoner’s hands. Make me a song of joy on a child’s lips in Syria. Make me, make me, just keep making me, God, until there is nothing left to transform, and then let me dissolve into you.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Oh God who sees and hears, sometimes it feels like you don’t. Sometimes it feels like we are lone voices crying out in the wilderness and no one, including you, can hear us. We want to believe you are listening. Help our unbelief. Give us the patience we need to survive, the passion we need to be your hands and feet of justice and peace in the world, and the trust that even though you may be silent, you are never far away. Without these, we may wither in despair. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“God, grant me the grace and space to slow myself, to wait and notice, that my heart and my hands would be ready to receive what you are offering. Amen. Claire Brown”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Mary knows that Rome’s justice offers no peace to her people, no security for her child. And so she holds space in the tension of resistance and clings to a hope that must surely look like madness in the face of empire. Giving birth to a child you know will be targeted by a system is an act of Advent. Living with purpose and intention in the face of an impossible life sentence is an act of Advent. Casting yourself and your family into an overcrowded boat to escape certain death for an uncertain future is an act of Advent.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“hyperaware, socially righteous, crusading life. The call of Advent is to practice putting down our desperate, human need for approval and fall in love with Jesus all over again, and to remember that nothing short of God’s love claims us. We are children of God, and that is enough.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“God’s hand is beckoning us to question the ways we allow people to live in, stand in, and share their truths. And it is my prayer that we will be willing to see the testimonies of women like Dr. Blasey Ford, Tarana Burke, and Anita Hill. They are certainly clarion angels of the Divine, as holy gifts pointing us toward God’s desire that we believe women—for their names are Emmanuel, “God with us.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Christ the teacher, Christ the listener, when you were a child, the temple leaders listened to you. And you told us we must be like children to really understand what you taught. May we slow down and pay attention to the children around us and be open to what they have to teach. May we embody their curiosity and wonder, their play, their songs and friendships, their ability to stop and rest when they are tired, and their humility to be held by someone who loves them when they fall. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Jesus of the vigil, you told us to keep watch, to stay alert for what is coming. Bless us with the strength to watch, to wait, and to work this Advent season, so that your kingdom which is here and is still to come may be realized in its fullness. Because if we do not keep watch, we may miss it. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Mother, Father, Creator God, Thank you for the words of our mothers in righteousness—those who bring the feminine energy of love and care and justice. May we nurture the seeds planted in us during our times of growth and waiting so that we might allow them to nourish us when the time comes to be born in a new way.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“God of impossible surprises, the stories say you led captives out of slavery, used unlikely and marginalized people to preach your message, and even resurrected the dead. They say you asked a young girl full of wonder and fear to bear a child. And those stories say that she said yes. Help us have hope in these impossible possibilities so that we too will practice liberation, inclusion, and resurrection. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“While pregnancy beyond the confines of marriage continues to carry a stigma in our context, it seems a righteous task to think more broadly about how sexual shame was at play in Joseph’s decision to leave Mary. Perhaps it is idealistic of me to imagine a world in which Joseph would never have had to question Mary’s account of what had happened to her, of why she had become pregnant beyond her control. But still, I wonder. Would Joseph have claimed the illegitimate son if the angel never showed up?”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Jesus of Bethlehem, your journey began in the womb, like ours. On this day, we remember how your teenage mother birthed the Prince of Peace. May we be more like your mother, birthing into the world more peace, justice, and love. Because if our pain can bring new life, it may be worth it. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Advent is all about waiting. It is about patience, expectation, and longing. We wait in hope for the arrival of something better than what we have now. This is a joyful hope. But Advent is about ache too, because longing and waiting are also painful experiences. For our exiled friends in prison longing for freedom, for our oppressed brothers and sisters waiting for justice, for our loved ones on the streets dreaming of a warm home, waiting is agony.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“In the past years as the United States watched the rise of the #MeToo movement and the public hearing of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, our culture has had many weighty conversations around sexual consent. In the aftermath, I asked myself, what would it take for our culture to find women’s claims to be truthful and legitimate? How are we allowing societal norms to shame us into abandoning the gifts of God to which we have been called? Where are we too righteous, as Joseph was initially, to find mercy for any #MeToo? How do we believe and listen to those who have been impregnated with the stories that still live within their bodies? Must women carry Messiahs in their wombs before we see or value them as women, worthy of honor, regardless?”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“God, give us ears to hear your messengers, the women you have entrusted with your truth and presence. May we uncover shame and prize the dignity of every person. Amen. Claire Brown”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Christ, you who went up to the mountains to go deep within yourself, who always returned to the places of the people, who needed others to keep watch with you—may we find comfort in your humanity, in knowing that you have felt all this too. Give us the strength to be present to this moment, and the vision to see your holy and whole picture. Amen.”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers

“Unless I am willing to wait, I will not perceive the author of all justice. Unless I am willing to slow down, my ears will miss the voice of peace. So, my word for the first time this Advent is stop. Stop everything and perceive God!”
― Michael T. McRay, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers