Advent prayers for each week and for lighting the candles
Four Sundays, four candles, starting Sunday, November 29. A short prayer for each one, a blessing for the wreath, and the old prayers Christians have said in Advent for centuries.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 10 min read
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:5 · BSB
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
Isaiah 9:2 · BSB
Advent prayers are short prayers for the four weeks before Christmas, most often said at the Advent wreath as one more candle is lit each Sunday. Below is a prayer for each week of Advent 2026, which begins on Sunday, November 29, along with a blessing for the wreath, a prayer for Christmas Eve, and three traditional prayers quoted word for word from their source.
None of this has to be done well. A wreath can be four candles on a dinner plate with a few branches from the yard. The match will go out, someone will argue about whose turn it is, and a toddler will try to blow the candle out before the Amen. That is all fine. What matters is that once a week the room goes quiet for a minute, and you name out loud what you are waiting for.
Many churches name the candles hope, peace, joy and love, and the weekly prayers follow that order. If your church names them differently, keep the prayers and change the word. For where the wreath came from and what the colors mean, see What is Advent?
Which candles to light: in week one, one violet candle. In week two, two violet. In week three, two violet and the rose. In week four, all four. On Christmas Eve, all four and the white Christ candle in the middle, if your wreath has one.
Before the first candle
A blessing for the wreath
Lord God, bless this ring of green and these four candles. As the light grows week by week, let our longing for your Son grow with it. Make this home a place of waiting and of welcome, and when he comes, find us awake. Amen.
Say this once, when the wreath is new: on the evening of Saturday, November 28, or just before the first lighting on Sunday. Let whoever made the wreath say it, even if the candles lean.
The evergreen is a fitting sign for the season. It stays green in the dead of winter, the way a promise holds when nothing seems to be happening.
First Sunday · November 29
The first candle: a prayer for hope
Lord Jesus, we light one small flame against a long darkness. You kept your promise once, in Bethlehem, and you will keep it again. Give us a hope that is more than wishing, and the patience to wait for you with our eyes open. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Light one violet candle. Before you pray, read Romans 13:12, the passage behind the old collect that follows: “The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
One candle does not do much against a dark room. That is the lesson of the first week. Hope starts small, and it starts before anything has visibly changed.
Traditional · The Advent collect
“Cast away the works of darkness”
Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy 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 quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (1662)
Thomas Cranmer wrote this prayer for the first English Prayer Book in 1549, and he took its central image straight from Romans 13. The 1662 Prayer Book asks for it to be said every day of Advent until Christmas Eve, which makes it the prayer of the whole season.
It holds both comings of Christ in a single sentence: the first “in great humility,” the second “in his glorious Majesty.” The “quick and the dead” are the living and the dead.
Second Sunday · December 6
The second candle: a prayer for peace
God of peace, your prophet promised a straight road through the wilderness. Make a road through our noise and our hurry. Quiet the arguments in this house and in our own hearts, and give peace to the places on the news tonight that have none. Prepare us to receive your Son. Amen.
Light two violet candles and read Isaiah 40:3: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.” John the Baptist took these words as his own, and this is the Sunday most churches read about him.
His message is less cozy than the candles: turn around, make things right. Peace in Advent is not the absence of noise. It is a cleared road. Before you pray, name one person you need to make peace with this week.
Traditional · A prayer for the Scriptures
“Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest”
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (1662)
Cranmer wrote this one for 1549 as well. In the Prayer Book it sits beside Romans 15:4, which says the Scriptures were written so that we might have hope, and the collect ends in the same place.
Notice the verbs: hear, read, mark, learn, inwardly digest. Scripture is not meant to be skimmed like a feed. It is meant to be taken in slowly, the way you eat a meal you are grateful for. Advent, with its long evenings, is a good time to start.
Third Sunday · December 13
The rose candle: a prayer for joy
Lord, you are near. More than halfway there, we light the rose candle and let ourselves rejoice. Give us a joy that does not wait for a perfect December: joy in small gifts, in old friends, in a table with room at it. Let our gladness point to you. Amen.
Light two violet candles and the rose one. This is Gaudete Sunday, named for the Latin word for “rejoice” that opens the day’s entrance chant, taken from Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Paul wrote that letter in chains. Christian joy has never depended on things going well. It depends on the Lord being near.
Fourth Sunday · December 20
The fourth candle: a prayer for love
Lord Jesus, you came to us as a child who needed to be held. Teach us to love the way Mary did: to say yes before we understand everything, and to make room. Show us who needs our love this week, and give us the courage to give it. Amen.
Light all four candles, then read Mary’s answer to the angel in Luke 1:38: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.”
In 2026 the fourth week lasts only 5 days, and they will be the busiest of the year. Pray this one for the person you find hardest to love this Christmas, by name.
Traditional · Stir up
“Raise up thy power, and come among us”
O Lord, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (1662)
This is the oldest of the three. Cranmer adapted it from a medieval Latin prayer of the Salisbury liturgy that began Excita, “stir up,” one of several Advent collects that opened with that word.
It is also the most honest. “Sore let and hindered” means badly held back. We do not get ourselves to Christmas on willpower. We ask him to come and help us run the race.
December 17 to 23
The last seven evenings: the O Antiphons
In the final week, the Church’s evening prayer gives each night its own short cry to Christ, sung with Mary’s song, the Magnificat. Each one calls him by an Old Testament title: O Wisdom, O Adonai, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Morning Star, O King of the Nations, O Emmanuel. They are more than a thousand years old; Amalarius, a ninth-century bishop, already wrote a commentary on them.
Read the Latin titles backward from the last night and their first letters spell ero cras, “tomorrow I will be there,” though scholars do not agree it was planned. At home, say the title of the night as you light the candles, and add: “Come, and do not delay.” If they sound familiar, they are the verses behind the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
On your iPhone
Let the countdown remind you to pray
Advent is already a countdown, and most of us look at a phone dozens of times a day. MySavior’s Christian Countdown widget shows the days left until Christmas on your Lock Screen or Home Screen, like the phone below, and it can count down to any of 30 feasts of the Christian year.
Tie a prayer to it. Each time you see the number, pray the shortest Advent prayer there is: “Come, Lord Jesus.” For the date at a glance, see how many days until Christmas.
Sunday, November 8
9:41
Count down to Christmas on your Lock ScreenMySavior’s Christian Countdown keeps Christmas in view through all four weeks, among 30 feasts of the Christian year.
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Christmas Eve · Thursday, December 24
Christmas Eve: a prayer for the Christ candle
Lord Jesus Christ, light of the world, the waiting is over. Every candle is burning, and you are here. Be born again in this house tonight: in our tired hearts, at our crowded table, among our unfinished lists. Thank you for coming to us. Amen.
Light all four candles, and the white one in the middle if you have it. Then read Isaiah 9:2: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”
Isaiah wrote it for a people living in the shadow of invasion, centuries before Bethlehem. Tonight it describes your living room.
A five-minute wreath at home
Pick one meal each Sunday, starting November 29, and keep it simple:
- Turn the lights down and light the week’s candles. Let a child light them with a grown-up’s hand on the match, and someone else put them out.
- Read the week’s verse above, slowly, once.
- Pray the week’s prayer. Then let everyone add one name or one worry, in a single sentence.
- Sit in silence for a minute, or sing one verse of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
On weeknights, light the same candles at dinner and say the same prayer. By the fourth Sunday the children will know it by heart, and so will you.
Keep Advent in view until Christmas
Bible verse and prayer widgets you design yourself, a countdown to the feasts of the year, and a saint for every day.
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Questions
What is a good prayer for lighting the Advent wreath?
A short one that names the week. For example: “Lord Jesus, we light this candle as we wait for you. Give us hope, peace, joy and love, and make room in us for your coming. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.” The prayers above give one for each Sunday, plus a blessing for the wreath and one for Christmas Eve.
In what order are the Advent candles lit?
One more candle each Sunday: a violet candle in week one, a second violet in week two, the rose candle on the third Sunday (Gaudete Sunday), and the last violet in week four. Each week you light the earlier candles again too. A white Christ candle in the center, if your wreath has one, is lit on Christmas Eve.
What are some traditional Advent prayers?
The Advent collects of the Book of Common Prayer, written or adapted by Thomas Cranmer in 1549, and the seven O Antiphons, sung on the evenings of December 17 to 23. Many Catholics also pray the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena, which begins “Hail and blessed be the hour and moment” and is said fifteen times a day from November 30, the feast of Saint Andrew, until Christmas Eve. Its origins are unknown.
Which Bible translation is quoted here?
Every verse in this article is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). The three collects are quoted exactly from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, with its old spelling. The other prayers were written for this page.
