Rev Moira McDonald, the minister of Corstorphine Old Parish Church in Edinburgh, formally joined the Chapel Royal as a Chaplain-in-Ordinary on 6 June. Moira played an important role, alongside her fellow Chapel Royal chaplains, in the vigil for Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth in September at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh.

Here, on the 25^th day of Advent, Moira has written a prayer on our theme for this year – Prepare The Way For The Lord.

Prepare the way for the Lord,
A promise made by prophets,
A call to awaken and excite,
To bring hope and possibility,
To overcome enemies and wait for the moment of revelation.

But when the people of the way became tired and the way became dusty,
The words became empty to hear,
And harder to respond to…
Preparing the way was someone else's job.
I had done my bit, and what good did it do?

And today when we are tired and dusty,
When we smile cynically about the promise of change,
When we roll our eyes and say ‘been there, done that',
The promise rings hollow,
The moment, the momentum, the marvelous are far away,
The excitement extinguished and the possibility poor.

And yet, wasn't it in the wilderness that the way was to be prepared?
Not in the sure and confident, nor the places of energy and excitement,
But the places – and people – who needed nurture and comfort,
Those who longed to be heard and seen,
To be known and understood?

Prepare the way for the Lord.
Loving God bless us and unburden us,
Embolden us and let us sing,
For to our lives and homes, our churches and communities,
Our doubts and worries,
Our joys and jubilations, you are coming,
And for this we give thanks. Amen.