Placement: Beginning of liturgy, replacing standard penitential rite
Duration: 4-5 minutes
Minister’s Note: Read slowly, with long pauses. Model stillness and groundedness. This is about creating space, not filling it.
For the full theological and scriptural foundation of this practice, especially understanding the story of Ahaz’s refusal to receive the sign from God and St. Joseph’s receptiveness and to dig deeper into Jesus’ lineage, see the Biblical Resources for this Sunday.
INVITATION TO PRESENCE
Presider:
Brothers and sisters, before we can receive Emmanuel—God with us—we must first notice where we are not letting God in. Like Ahaz, we make our treaties. And like Joseph, we entrust our plans to God. This morning, before we celebrate the nearness of Christmas, let us simply notice: Where am I holding on? Where am I refusing to receive?
Let us begin by arriving in our bodies.
(Pause 10 seconds)
EMBODIED AWARENESS
Reader or Presider:
Feel your feet on the floor. The weight of your body in this seat or standing here. You don’t have to change anything. Just notice: you are here. Breathing. Held by gravity. Held by this moment.
(Pause 10 seconds)
Now bring your attention to your breath. Not changing it. Just noticing. The breath comes. The breath goes. Without your control. Your body knows how to breathe.
(Pause 10 seconds)
Notice your hands. Are they gripping anything? Clenched? Open? What are your hands holding right now?
(Pause 8 seconds)
Notice your jaw. Your shoulders. Are you holding tension there? The places in your body where you grip, where you brace, where you try to hold everything together—just notice them. With kindness. Without judgment.
(Pause 10 seconds)
EXAMINATION – WHERE WE ARE AHAZ
Presider:
King Ahaz was terrified. Enemies at the gates. His heart trembling like trees in wind. And when God said, “Ask me for a sign—anything—as deep as death or high as heaven,” Ahaz said no. Because he’d already made his treaty with Assyria. Already decided how salvation would come. Already chosen control over trust.
(Pause 5 seconds)
Let us ask ourselves gently:
Where have I made my treaties? What alliances have I formed that keep me from asking God for help?
(Pause 10 seconds)
Where am I trying to save myself through visible power, political calculation, my own managing and fixing and controlling?
(Pause 10 seconds)
What am I carrying on my shoulders that I refuse to put down? What burden am I convinced only I can bear?
(Pause 10 seconds)
Where am I saying “I will not test the Lord” when what I really mean is “I’ve already decided how this must go”?
(Pause 10 seconds)
Notice if there’s a tightening in your body as you consider these questions. A gripping. A bracing. Just notice. Breathe.
(Pause 8 seconds)
CONFESSION
Presider:
Let us confess our refusal to receive.
All:
I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault.
Presider:
In my thoughts:
(Pause – let people finish internally: “I have made my own treaties…”)
All:
In my words:
(Pause – “I have refused your signs…”)
All:
In what I have done:
(Pause – “I have tried to control what only you can hold…”)
All:
And in what I have failed to do:
(Pause – “I have not rested in you…”)
Through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault.
INVITATION TO RECEPTIVITY – WHERE WE CAN BE JOSEPH
Reader or Presider:
Joseph was planning to leave. To end it. To send Mary away quietly. The family was over before it began. He had decided.
And then he slept. And in his sleeping, defenseless body, God spoke. And when Joseph woke, he did something impossible: he received what he did not create. He fathered a son who wasn’t his. He let go of his plan and trusted the dream.
(Pause 5 seconds)
So now, simply notice:
What would it feel like to let go? Even just a little? What would it feel like to unclench your hands, to soften your jaw, to let your shoulders drop?
(Pause 10 seconds)
Try it now. Let your hands open. Palms up if you can, resting on your lap or at your sides. Physical gesture of releasing control. You don’t have to feel anything. Just make the gesture.
(Pause 8 seconds)
Take one breath where you consciously release on the exhale. Breathing out what you’re trying to hold. Breathing in the possibility that God might work through your surrender.
(Pause 10 seconds)
And ask yourself gently: What am I being invited to receive that I did not create? What impossible thing is God asking me to take home, to name, to father, to mother?
(Pause 10 seconds)
Where might God be speaking to me through dreams, through the oneiric realm I can’t control, through the messages that bypass my rational defenses?
(Pause 10 seconds)
ABSOLUTION & OPENING
Presider:
Emmanuel means “God with us.” Not “God with perfect people.” Not “God with people who have it all together.” Not “God with those who never refuse, never control, never make treaties with empires.”
God with US. With Ahaz and Joseph both. With refusers and receivers. With the whole messy, broken, beautiful lineage.
May almighty God have mercy on us,
forgive us our sins,
release us from the grip of our own control,
teach us the grace of receptivity,
and bring us to the rest that our restless hearts are seeking—
the rest that is found only in Him.
All: Amen.
Presider:
The sign is given anyway. Whether we ask or not, whether we feel ready or not, Emmanuel is coming. God will break through. The incarnation happens in the flesh—your flesh, with all its trembling and gripping and bracing and holding.
So: Let the Lord enter. He is the King of Glory.
Open your hands. Open your heart. Receive what you cannot orchestrate.
Christmas is coming. Emmanuel is almost here.
(Pause 5 seconds)
And now, with hearts a little more open, a little more ready, let us continue this Mass, trusting that the God who spoke to Joseph in dreams is still speaking, still calling us to belong, still inviting us to receive the gift we cannot create.
Minister’s Notes:
- The power is in the PAUSES. Don’t rush. Let silence do its work.
- Model the embodied practices yourself – open hands, relaxed shoulders.
- Some people will feel uncomfortable with body awareness. That’s okay. Keep it invitational, not mandatory.
- If people are deeply moved (tears, etc.), let that be. Don’t rush past it.
- This replaces the standard penitential rite, so move directly into the Gloria after the final absolution.
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