Week of 1 Advent: Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
(Matthew 24:42-44)
A Collect for the First Sunday of Advent
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Each night when lighting the candle or candles for the week, the reading above can be read out loud with the collect, or alternatively, a family or household may use the Forward Movement website for daily readings from the Bible for the season of Advent to inspire and inform your spirits: https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/daily-devotions. Remember, the lessons from the BCP are anticipatory, like the season of Lent. By and large, the stories assigned do not have the name of Jesus, Mary, Elizabeth, or Joseph until just before December 24, but they do talk about the Jewish longing for God, a savior, and a restoring of creation. For the very ambitious, An Order for Evening Worship is available in the BCP from page 109-113 with notations for Collects and Prayers to be used in Advent—it is a short form.
Weekly readings in Advent with Collects for use in Lighting of the Advent Candles, to be used independently or with An Order of Worship for the Evening: