Step out of the Christmas rush. Take time to prepare ahead for next week’s Gospel and be open to the blessings of our final week of waiting.
GOSPEL
Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’
(Luke 1:39–44)
EXPLORING THE WORD
Elizabeth’s response to the visit of her young kinswoman
is quite remarkable. She can have had no way of knowing what had happened to Mary, but she receives a sudden intuition from God and is ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’.
Elizabeth and the child she carries both recognise and respond to an in-breaking of God’s action in human history. The revelation to Elizabeth is even more profound when we realise that she rejoices not only because Mary is carrying the long-awaited saviour, but also because she sees that Mary’s blessedness is a direct result of her faith.
‘Blessed is she who believed that the promise made to her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’ It is Mary’s willing acceptance of the role God chose for her that has resulted in her being blessed among women.
• Can you think of a time when you ‘knew’ something without being told? What was the source of your intuition?
• What promises has God made to you? Do you believe the promises that have been made?
MAKING CONNECTIONS
• ‘You are most blessed.’ Do you have a sense of how ‘blessed’ you are? Can you recognise the ‘blessedness’ of others?
• Have there been occasions when you have had a sense of being filled with the Holy Spirit or a sense of the closeness of God?
• This week try to visit someone who is in need of some attention, especially as Christmas is almost upon us. Make the time to reach out to another.
• Mary’s great song of rejoicing, which comes after today’s gospel, makes a suitable prayer this week.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.
For he has looked upon my lowliness;
behold, from now on, all ages will call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
Breath Prayer. As we walk with Mary towards Bethlehem
(Breathe in:) I am the servant of the Lord:
(Breathe out:) may his will for me be done.
Adapted from Summit Magazine Archdiocese of Melbourne
Journey Through Advent
Take some time during the week to prepare and reflect ahead of the Sunday Gospels.
GOSPEL
When all the people asked John, ‘What must we do?’ he answered, ‘If anyone had two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.’ There were tax collectors too who came for baptism, and these said to him, ‘Master, what must we do?’ He said to them, ‘Exact no more than your rate.’ Some soldiers asked him in their turn, ‘What about us? What must we do?’ He said to them, ‘No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!’
A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing- fan is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’ As well as this, there were many other things he said to exhort the people and to announce the Good News to them.
(Luke 3:10–18)
EXPLORING THE WORD
‘What must we do?’ This is a profound question.
• If we were to ask today, ‘What must we do?’, how might John answer us?
MAKING CONNECTIONS
‘A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people.’
•Is there an expectancy growing in you as the coming of Christ draws closer?
‘What must we do?’
• John’s words offer a deep challenge to how people live.
• Make a special effort to live ethically this week; not always an easy thing to do. What are some of the challenges today that make it difficult to live ethically?
How often do we hear, ‘But everyone does it’, and what are some of the circumstances about which such a statement is made?
‘John proclaimed good news to the people.’
• Can you can be part of the good news for others?
The “people were filled with expectation.”
•They knew that something worthwhile was coming. Do you go through a typical day expecting God to act—and expecting the Holy Spirit to show you what to do?
This week’s responsorial psalm:
Truly, God is my salvation,
I trust, I shall not fear.
For the Lord is my strength, my song,
he became my saviour.
Cry out with joy and gladness:
For among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
BREATH PRAYER: While you wait.
(Breathe in) Truly
(Breathe out) God is my salvation
Adapted from Summit Magazine Archdiocese of Melbourne
Second Sunday of Advent
GOSPEL
In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the lands of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the pontificate of
Annas and Caiaphas the word of God came to John son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice cries in the wilderness:
Prepare a way for the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley will be filled in,
every mountain and hill be laid low,
winding ways will be straightened
and rough roads made smooth.
And all mankind shall see the salvation of God.
(Luke 3:1–6)
DID YOU KNOW?
• Luke goes to great lengths to describe the geographical and political world into which Jesus is born. God enters into human history at a specific time and place. The coming of Jesus for the salvation of the world is not a vague notion but a concrete event in time.
• The prophets of the Hebrew tradition were specially chosen people who spoke the word of God to Israel. John the Baptist is sometimes referred to as the last of the great prophets.
• Scholars believe that Jesus may well have spent some time as a disciple of the Baptist before embarking on his own public ministry.
EXPLORING THE WORD
The word of God that comes to John in the wilderness is not a word meant for him alone but is to be shared with all the people. John’s proclamation of the word of God ‘through the whole Jordan district’ is a precursor to Jesus’ instruction to his disciples ‘that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations’ (Luke 24:47).
• What new beginning are you being called to as you undertake your journey through Advent?
• What ‘sins of the past’ is all humanity being called upon to repent of in order to make a new beginning?
MAKING CONNECTIONS
• Are there paths in your life that need to be made straight, or hills and valleys that need to be levelled, in order to make it easier for the Lord to come to you?
• Who are the prophets of the modern age who call people back to fidelity to God’s plan for the world?
• Lord, this Advent, give me a welcoming heart. Help me be open to the messengers of your word, especially to those whom, at first glance, I might resist, for they are your prophets of today. They urge me to change my way of thinking and living.
• This week, try not to get bound up in the ‘Christmas cheer’ that dominates all around us. Choose instead, to concentrate on the waiting and the preparation for what is to come.
• The entrance antiphon for next Sunday is a lovely prayer for this week:
The Lord will come to save the nations,
and the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard in the joy of your heart.
For the time you spend in waiting— in traffic, on the phone, to cross the road, for the kettle to boil:
BREATH PRAYER
(Breathe in) Come, O Lord
(Breath out) Joy of my heart
Adapted from Summit Magazine, Archdiocese of Melbourne
Come along on a Journey Through Advent by taking time over the coming week to pray, reflect and prepare for
THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
GOSPEL
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.
‘Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.’
(Luke 21:25–28, 34–36)
DID YOU KNOW?
• A recurring theme in the Advent gospels is looking towards the end times, when Christ will come again.
• Advent begins the cycle of readings for Year C in the Lectionary. This means that most of the gospel readings are taken from the Gospel of Luke.
EXPLORING THE WORD
Luke’s Gospel is written for a Gentile church community who are caught in ‘between’ times. The early Christians believed that Jesus would return soon as the Lord of Glory. As time passed, they had to rethink this belief.
Luke tells us how Christians are to live in the ‘in-between time’. They must be attentive to the Gospel and live in readiness to meet their God. They must not be distracted by the cares and snares of the world, but be ready to stand confidently before the Son of Man.
• What are the things in your life that distract you from the Gospel?
• What are some of the strategies that make it easier to be attentive to the important things in life?
MAKING CONNECTIONS
• In your life, what things have been ‘sprung on you suddenly’? How did you deal with such surprises?
• Consider your hopes and fears for the future. Are there particular goals you have set for yourself? How are you preparing for the future? What would you like that future to hold for you? Do you see
it as a time of uncertainty, or do you look forward with confidence?
• This Advent, be attentive to the time you spend in waiting— in traffic, on the phone, to cross the road, for the kettle to boil. Use these small moments of waiting to focus on, and prepare yourself for, the coming of Christ at Christmas.
BREATH PRAYER
(Breathe in) Come, O Lord
(Breath out) And set us free
Adapted from Summit Magazine, Archdiocese of Melbourne