SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2023 - Sunday, December 10th
Download here for printer friendly version - Week 2
On Fridays during Advent, interested parishioners will meet in the Gathering room at 3:00 p.m. to discuss the readings for the upcoming weekend moderated by Father Joji or Deacon John. The gathering meeting for the Second Sunday of Advent will not be held because of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Friday, December 8. Even though there will be no gathering to discuss this weeks Advent readings, we have still provided explanation of important aspects of the reading to help provide insights into God’s Word to his faithful.
Reading 1
Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your Lord.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Go up on to a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Juda:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:
Responsorial Psalm
R. (8) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD—for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:
Reading 2
Do not ignore this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years
and a thousand years like one day.
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,”
but he is patient with you,
not wishing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar
and the elements will be dissolved by fire,
and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.
Since everything is to be dissolved in this way,
what sort of persons ought you to be,
conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted by fire.
But according to his promise
we await new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you await these things,
be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
All flesh shall see the salvation of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.”
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel’s hair,
with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
“One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2023 - Sunday, December 3rd
Download here for printer friendly version - Week 1
Advent marks the beginning of the Church’s Liturgical Calendar. There are four Sunday liturgies before the great coming of the Birth of Christ, the saviors of the world. We also anticipate the Second Coming of the Lord during Advent. We prepare ourselves by prayer, fasting (normally by refraining from eating meat on Fridays), holy music, and reflecting on the Gospel of Christ. We look towards the Nativity of Jesus on Christmas Day and pray and reflect of on our preparation of His Second Coming.
On Fridays during Advent, interested parishioners will meet in the Gathering room at 3:00 p.m. to discuss the readings for the upcoming weekend moderated by Father Joji or Deacon John. The First Sunday of Advent discussion group will be on Friday, December 1, in the Gathering Room. We will exchange our thoughts on the questions suggested after each reading below, as well as any other questions offered by those in attendance. The Spanish community is welcome to join and will have their own gathering on Friday, December 22 in the Church at 6:00 p.m. There will be no gathering for the English community on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Friday, December 8, nor on Friday, December 22, when the Spanish Community meets.
READINGS FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
December 2 and 3, 2023
ALERT ABOUT HEBREW LANGUAGE
The Hebrew language is based on our senses and emotions; and is centered on its history of a nomadic people and their discovery and relationship with their God. All the words in Hebrew are drawn from their nomadic lifestyle and are originally pictures of that lifestyle.
NOTE ON THE USE OF FOOTNOTES
Footnotes are used to provide insights into ideas, phases, and words we may not be familiar with.
Reading 1
You, LORD, are our father,
our redeemer you are named forever.
Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
with the mountains quaking before you,
while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,
such as they had not heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen,
any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.
Would that you might meet us doing right,
that we were mindful of you in our ways!
Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;
all of us have become like unclean people,
all our good deeds are like polluted rags;
we have all withered like leaves,
and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
There is none who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to cling to you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have delivered us up to our guilt.
Yet, O LORD, you are our father;
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:
Responsorial Psalm
R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man. whom you yourself made strong
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:
Reading II
1 COR 1:3-9 (Written by the Apostle Paul in Ephesus about 50 A.D. to the church he founded in Corinth)
Brothers and sisters:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful,
and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Show us Lord, your love;
and grant us your salvation.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON: