Year B
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
Every person sleeps on average between 7 and 8 hours a day. This means that we spend one third of our lives asleep. If a person is blessed to reach the age of 90, he or she will have spent 30 years of life asleep. That’s a long time! But this is something good. This is how God created us. Sleep is important for the body. Sleep helps our bodies to regenerate so we have strength for the next day.
As good and as important as sleep is, there is one area in our lives where we must never fall asleep and never become tired, and that is in the area of faith, hope and love. Today's Gospel on this 1st Sunday of Advent opens with an important, urgent exhortation from the Lord: Be watchful! Be alert! We are to be like the gatekeeper who is always on the watch. Jesus says: "You do not know when the master 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."
These words of the Lord do not mean that from now on we must never physically sleep. Rather, the Lord wants our longing for Him to grow ever greater. We should become more and more aware that the Lord dwells among us and already gifts us with many graces and blessings.
The blessed season of Advent, which we are beginning today, seeks to increase our longing for God and his coming. Advent makes us ask ourselves: How intense is our longing for God? How earnestly do we seek God in our everyday lives? How passionately do we long for his coming in our lives? And how does this intense longing for God express itself concretely? Do we have time for the Lord, time for prayer, time for Holy Scripture, time for Holy Mass, and time for the people who need us?
The Lord says that we should stay awake, because we do not know when the time will come. The Lord has given each one of us a specific task. “He places his servants in charge, each with his own work”. But to fulfil this task we must be vigilant, always on the lookout for his coming. And the Lord is continually coming to us. He comes to us in every circumstance of life, in every person we meet. He comes to us through the Holy Scriptures and through the sacraments of the Church, especially through the Eucharist. A true Christian waits eagerly for his coming. He does not get tired of waiting. He does not become lazy. His faith remains firm and constant. His love is like a lamp in his heart that burns always.
It is no coincidence that we light candles during Advent. This is to figuratively express what is to happen inside our hearts. With each new Advent Sunday, a new candle is lit, so that shortly before Christmas all 4 candles are lit. Our hearts should burn with love and this longing should never be extinguished. Lord, help us to be watchful servants!
1st Sunday of Advent
Catholicism of the Catholic Church References:
CCC 668-677, 769: the final tribulation and Christ’s return in glory
CCC 451, 671, 1130, 1403, 2817: "Come, Lord Jesus!"
CCC 35: God gives humanity grace to accept Revelation, welcome the Messiah
CCC 827, 1431, 2677, 2839: acknowledging that we are sinners
“Advent has a two-fold character, for it is a time of preparation for the Solemnity of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. For these two reasons, Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight.” (GIRM para.39)
Liturgically, how do we bring out the two-fold nature of Advent with “devout and expectant delight”, without jumping the gun to Christmas itself? Some suggested dos and don’ts:
1. Have an ADVENT-centred carol service avoiding Christmas readings and carols: a look at The Easter Vigil and texts for Sundays and Weekdays of Advent might help
2. No crib or tree until after 4thSunday of Advent
3. Make the Advent wreath imposing(think stork’s nest) with lots of greenery. Perhaps light each candle as part of the Penitential Act using focused verses with Kyries (sung!) depending on the readings and prayers eg:
You will come with salvation for your people Kyrie……
You are the light that shines in darkness Christe………
John the Forerunner was your herald Kyrie…..
4. Dim the lights (if safe to do so)
5. Avoid hymns (if you use them) that could be sung any time: there are only four Sundays of Advent after all: go back to GIRM quote, above, for inspiration, or a good hymnal index. Could you learn at least one new seasonal hymn/chant over the four Sundays, or find a tune you know for words you don’t?
Hymns have been chosen from the Laudate hymnal:
God is working his purpose out 86
Like a sea without a shore 84
Wait for the Lord 88
Hark! a herald voice 92
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
