Fourth Sunday of Advent

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 65:11-22
Mass: Mi 5:1-4a; Resp Ps 80; Heb 10:5-10; Lk 1:39-45

He shall be peace.

These last few days before Christmas can be hectic no matter how hard we try to remain calm, peaceful, and focused on what we are about, namely, preparing to celebrate the First Coming of the Son of God. One way to take pause amidst the hustle and bustle is to stop and pray with the last part of the traditional Angelus prayer, used at Mass on this Fourth Sunday of Advent.

Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord,

your grace into our hearts,

that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son

was made known by the message of an Angel,

may by his Passion and Cross

be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity

of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

(Collect, Mass)

She who conceived God by faith promises you the same if you have faith; if you will faithfully receive the Word from the mouth of the heavenly messenger, you too may conceive the God whom the whole world cannot contain.

(Guerric of Igny)

When the human spirit is ready, God enters without hesitation or waiting. You need not look either here or there. God is no farther away than the door of your heart.

(Meister Eckhart)

Our silence is both the empty pathway by which we venture most surely into the divine mystery and the clear road by which the Word proceeds most directly into our hearts.

(Wendy Wright)

We continue on this second day before Christmas with the 'O' Antiphons and praise O Emmanuel.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the hope of all nations and their Savior: come and save us, O Lord our God!

THE LIGHTS OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE REMIND US THAT JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, THE LIGHT OF OUR SOULS THAT DRIVES AWAY THE DARKNESS OF HATRED AND MAKES ROOM FOR FORGIVENESS.
(Pope Francis, Twitter, December 23, 2018)

Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved. 
(Resp Ps 80)