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Cycle C
1st SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Your redemption is drawing near.
ENTRANCE ANTIPHON
To you, my God, I lift up my soul, I trust in you; let me never come to shame. Do not let my enemies laugh at me. No one who waits for you is ever put to shame.
PENITENTIAL RITE
Dear sisters and brothers, today is the first Sunday of the new liturgical season, the season of advent. More ardent prayer and earnest waiting characterize the advent season. In this way we can avoid being caught up by the cares and dissipations of life and our hearts can remain blameless in holiness. How is the style of our life? Are our hearts blameless as we wait for Jesus? (Pause.) For allowing worldly pursuits smother our noble purposes and deadening our love for Jesus let us be sorry and say:
I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault (All strike their breast) in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do; and I ask blessed Mary ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray. All-powerful God, increase our strength of will for doing good that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming and call us to his side in the Kingdom of heaven where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
FIRST READING
(An upright successor to David will come who will practise justice and provide security.)
A reading from the book of Jeremiah
(33:14-16)
"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch to spring forth for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’."
This is the Word of the Lord
PSALM (21)
Response : To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
Lord, make me know your ways. Lord, teach me your paths. Make me walk in your truth, and teach me: for you are God my saviour. R.
The Lord is good and upright. He shows the path to those who stray. He guides the humble in the right path: he teaches his way to the poor. R.
His ways are faithfulness and love for those who keep his covenant and will. The Lord’s friendship is for those who revere him; to them he reveals his covenant. R.
SECOND READING
(St Paul prays that the Thessalonians may grow in their love for each other and become blameless as they wait for the Lord.)
A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Thessalonians (3:12-4:2)
Brethren: May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you; so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
This is the Word of the Lord
ACCLAMATION (Ps 84:8)
Alleluia, alleluia! Let us see, O Lord, your mercy and give us your saving help. Alleluia!
GOSPEL
(Jesus recommends prayer and watchfulness to face the impending calamities.)
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke
( 21:25-28,34-36)
Jesus said to his disciples: "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
"But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
This is the Gospel of the Lord
I believe in God,/the Father Almighty,/ Creator of heaven and earth./ I believe in Jesus Christ,/his only Son, our Lord./ He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit/ and born of the Virgin Mary./He suffered under Pontius Pilate,/was crucified, died, and was buried./He descended to the dead./On the third day he rose again./He ascended into Heaven,/and is seated at the right hand of the Father./He will come again to judge the living and the dead./I believe in the Holy Spirit,/the Holy Catholic Church,/the communion of saints,/the forgiveness of sins,/the resurrection of the body,/and the life everlasting./ Amen.
PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL
Cel: Dear brothers and sisters, on this first Sunday of Advent, let us more earnestly turn to God our Father and pray more hopefully for wisdom to set our priorities right. Our response: Father, let your wisdom guide us.
1. We pray for all Church leaders: may administration not stifle and crowd out the spirit of holiness in them. R.
2. Let us pray for the baptized that they will be true to the baptismal promises and commitments. R.
3. We pray for those who are far from Christ and the Church. Holy Spirit, lead them gently back to the source of true life and happiness. R.
4. We lovingly recommend the faithful departed. Father, bring them to fullness of life with you. R.
(Pause to pray for other intentions.)
Cel: Gracious Father, you created us for you. Keep in us always alive the hunger for you. We ask this…
PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS
Father, from all you give us we present this bread and wine. As we serve you now, accept our offering and sustain us with your promise of eternal life. We ask this...
PREFACE (P 1)
COMMUNION ANTIPHON
The Lord will shower his gifts, and our land will yield its fruit.
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
Father, may our communion teach us to love heaven. May its promise and hope guide our way on earth. We ask this...
LITURGY AND LIFE
The three Readings of today speak of "advent" or arrival of something/someone. They heighten our expectation, our sense of anticipation. They instil hope.
Reading I from Jeremiah is wholly positive. To the hopeful content of Reading 2 is added a caution and an exhortation. The gospel at the beginning is grim, sombre, even frightening. But it concludes on a hopeful and optimistic note. The gospel at first describes the violent end of the world. There will be natural calamities, humans trembling with fear. But all these are only a prelude to something good coming, specifically to the arrival of the Son of man in power and great glory. For the frightened and terror-stricken people is the comforting and reassuring message: "Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Don’t be cowed down and down cast, don’t feel discouraged, hopeless and helpless. Be full of hope and confidence for ‘your redemption is drawing near.’
Our total liberation is close at hand. And so the terrible things that precede it are not death pangs but labour pains. They represent the struggles for freedom. Though freedom is our birthright, no country ever won freedom without struggle, in certain cases long and bitter struggle.
Hence Jesus’ warning not to be dulled by the cares of life, not to become soft by an easy way of life. Five out of ten bridesmaids were caught napping and they missed the chance of their lives. Against such a tendency all of us are prone to, Jesus counsels prayer and watchfulness. Watchful prayer will provide us with the strength, the oil, to withstand the hard times and to face confidently the Son of man, our liberator, our Messiah.
Christian life is a patient, prayerful waiting or as Pope John Paul II says it is an advent. Why so? Because to nothing we can construct or achieve we can say ‘This is it’. For there is a God-shaped hole in the centre of every human heart which no one and nothing can fill. God himself has to come and fill it with himself. Besides from birth we are waiting for death, the last door that opens to God. Death will come like a thief when least expected; it will come upon us ‘like a snare’.
We wait for the Second Coming of Christ. Prayer keeps the longing ardent, the heart open and clean. It is to be watchful and to be waiting. To be humbly watchful and joyfully waiting is already to be prayerful. Such a stance will hardly surprise us or find us unprepared when the final hour strikes.
* * *
True waiting means waiting without anxiety (St Francis of Sales).
* * *
There are three distinct comings of the Lord of which I know, His coming to men, His coming into men, and His coming against men (St Bernard).
December 2003
CALENDAR
Psalter Week 1
1/Mon (V) Is 2:1-5; Ps 121; Mt 8:5-11
2/Tue (V) Is 11:1-10; Ps 71; Lk 19:21-24
3/Wed (W) ST FRANCIS XAVIER
Is 61:1-3; Ps 88; 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 16:15-20
4/Thu (V/W) or St John Damacene Is 26:1-6; Ps 117; Mt 7:24-27
5/Fri (V) Is 29:17-24; Ps 226; Mt 9:27-31
6/Sat (V/W) or St Nicholas bp Is 30:19-21, 23-26; Ps 146; Mt 9:35—10:l, 6-8
