Aabout Jesus glorious return and Isaiah tells the people to " stay awake."

 Saint Paul urges the Christians to await the Lord by walking in the ways of light.

 The Church calls us at the beginning of the new liturgical year

 to look forward to Christ's glorious return, and to the end of time. 

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊      

 Isaiah 2:1-5

The vision of Isaiah, 

Son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be set over the highest mountains and shall tower over the hills.

All the nations shall stream to it, saying, "Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths. For the teaching comes from Zion, and from Jerusalem the word of the Lord.

He will rule over the nations and settle disputes for many people. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not raise sword against nation; they will train for war no more. O nation of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!"

 

Ps 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

 

＊＊＊ 2nd Reading ＊＊＊

Romans 13:11-14

You know what hour it is.

This is the time to awake, for our salvation is now nearer than when we first believed;

the night is almost over, and day is at hand. Let us discard, therefore, everything that belongs to darkness,

and let us put on the armor of light. As we live in the full light of day, let us behave with decency;

no banquets with drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, no fighting or jealousy.

Put on, rather, the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not be led by the will of the flesh nor follow its desires.

 

＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊     

Matthew 24:37-44

At the coming of the Son of Man, it will be just as it was in the time of Noah. In those days before the Flood,

people were eating and drinking, and marrying, until that day when Noah went into the ark. Yet,

they did not know what would happen, until the flood came and swept them away. So will it be, at the coming of the Son of Man:

of two men in the field, one will be taken and the other left; of two women grinding wheat together at the mill, one will be taken and the other left.

Stay awake then, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Obviously, if the owner of the house knew at what time the thief was coming,

he would certainly stay up and not allow his house to be broken into. So be alert, for the Son of Man will come at the hour you least expect.

 

 

Lectio Divina

Gospel Reflection ：

"Stay awake."

 

Read: Isaiah has a vision of the end times in which the nations converge on Sion in peace.

Saint Paul urges the Christians to await the Lord by walking in the ways of light.

Jesus preaches about his glorious return and tells the people to stay awake.

 

Reflect: Advent is a very short season, and it's probably mentally shortened even further by the commercial anticipation of Christmas.

Therefore, we often jump straight to the second focus of Advent, namely the first coming of Christ at the Incarnation.

However, the Church calls us at the beginning of the new liturgical year to look forward to Christ's glorious return, and to the end of time.

Jesus warned his disciples to "stay awake," to be prepared for his return, so that they would not be spiritually asleep like many in Noah's day.

Our hearts are to be prepared to welcome Christ. This is the purpose of Advent: a preparation for Christ's coming to us, so that we truly long for him.

This welcoming starts now, and not just at the end of time, since Christ also comes to us silently in prayer and in the Eucharist.

 

Pray: Meditate upon the phrase Come, Lord Jesus or the original Aramaic Maranatha.

 

Act: Spend time in Eucharistic adoration today.