4th Sunday in Advent (Liturgical Year C)

December 4, 2012
Readings  Micah 5:1-4  Psalm 80:2-3,15-16,18-19  Hebrews 5:5-10  Luke 1:39-45 (see also “The New ‘Ark’”)  Chants Visitation, Master MS (Sebestyén?), 1506 A Mother's Greeting On this last Sunday before Christmas, the Church’s Liturgy reveals the true identity of our Redeemer: He is, as today’s First Reading says, the “ruler...whose origin is from...ancient times.” He will come from Bethlehem, where David was born…

3rd Sunday in Advent (Liturgical Year C)

December 3, 2010
Readings  Zephaniah 3:14-18  Isaiah 12:2-6  Philippians 4:4-7  Luke 3:10-18  Chants Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and a Saint, Giovanni Bellin, 1504 What Do We Do? The people in today’s Gospel are “filled with expectation.” They believe John the Baptist might be the Messiah they’ve been waiting for. Three times we hear their question: “What then should we…

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Year ABC)

December 2, 2010
Readings Genesis 3:9-15, 20 Psalm 98:1-4 Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 Luke 1:26-38 Chants Scott Hahn with David Scott In today’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel greets Mary in an unusual way: “Hail, favored one” (see Luke 1:28). Kecharitomene, the Greek word translated as “favored one,” is very rare, used in only one other place in the New Testament—in the text selected for…

2nd Sunday in Advent (Liturgical Year C)

December 2, 2010
Readings  Baruch 5:1-9  Psalm 126:1-6  Philippians 1:4-6,8-11  Luke 3:1-6  Chants Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist, Attended by Angels Fernando Llanos, 1514-16 The Road Home Today’s Psalm paints a dream-like scene—a road filled with liberated captives heading home to Zion (Jerusalem), mouths filled with laughter, tongues rejoicing. It’s a glorious picture from Israel’s past, a “new exodus,”…

1st Sunday in Advent (Liturgical Year C)

December 1, 2010
Readings  Jeremiah 33:14-16  Psalm 25:4-5,8-10,14  1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2  Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 Chants Nativity, Albrecht Altdorfer, 1513 Heads Up Every Advent, the Liturgy of the Word gives our sense of time a reorientation. There’s a deliberate tension in the next four weeks’ readings—between promise and fulfillment, expectation and deliverance, between looking forward and looking back. In today’s First Reading, the prophet…

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