Advent: December 3rd
First Sunday of Advent
MASS READINGS
December 03, 2023 (Readings on USCCB website)
PROPERS [show]
COLLECT PRAYER
First Sunday of Advent: Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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For Catholics, the new Liturgical Year commences with the First Sunday of Advent, opening the Advent season. In this new Liturgical Year, the Church not only wishes to indicate the beginning of a period, but the beginning of a renewed commitment to the faith by all those who follow Christ, the Lord. This time of prayer and path of penance that is so powerful, rich and intense, endeavors to give us a renewed impetus to truly welcome the message of the One who was incarnated for us. In fact, the entire Liturgy of the Advent season, will spur us to an awakening in our Christian life and will put us in a ‘vigilant’ disposition, to wait for Our Lord Jesus who is coming:
‘Awaken! Remember that God comes! Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today, now! The one true God, "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," is not a God who is there in Heaven, unconcerned with us and our history, but he is the-God-who-comes.’1
The Season of Advent is therefore a season of vigilant waiting, that prepares us to welcome the mystery of the Word Incarnate, who will give the ‘Light’ to the womb of the Virgin Mary, but essentially this time prepares us not only to welcome this great event but to incarnate it in our lives. We could say that the true light enters the world through the immaculate womb of Mary but it does not stay there. On the contrary, this light flows out into our dark, obscure, sinful lives to illuminate them, so that we can become the light that illuminates the world. For this reason, let us live this time of waiting not only to celebrate a historical memory but to repeat this memory in our lives and in the service of others. To wait for the Lord who comes, means to wait and to watch so that the Word of Love enters inside us and focuses us every day of our lives.
As Saint John Henry Newman reminded us in a homily for the Advent Season: “Advent is a time of waiting, it is a time of joy because the coming of Christ is not only a gift of grace and salvation but it is also a time of commitment because it motivates us to live the present as a time of responsibility and vigilance. This ‘vigilance’ means the necessity, the urgency of an industrious, living ‘wait.’ To make all this happen, then we need to wake up, as we are warned by the apostle to the Gentiles, in today's reading to the Romans: ‘Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed' ” (Rm 13:11).
We must start our journey to ascend to the mountain of the Lord, to be illuminated by His Words of peace and to allow Him to indicate the path to tread (cf. Is 2:1-5). Moreover, we must change our conduct abandoning the works of darkness and put on the ‘armor of light’ and so seek only to do God’s work and to abandon the deeds of the flesh (cf. Rm 13:12-14). Jesus, through the story in the parable, outlines the Christian life style that must not be distracted and indifferent but must be vigilant and recognize even the smallest sign of the Lord’s coming because we don’t know the hour in which He will arrive (cf. Mt 24:39-44).
1 Pope Benedict XVI, Celebration of First Vespers of Advent, Vatican Basilica, December 2006
—Excerpted from Dicastery for the Clergy
Station Church Information >>>
The First Sunday of Advent marks the new Liturgical Year, and the Church shifts into a new Lectionary Cycle for Sundays, with 2023-24 returning to Cycle B, the Gospel of St. Mark. In the Sunday Gospel (Mark 13:33-37) Jesus invites us to recognize the signs of the last days. This is a reminder that Advent is not just looking back at the first coming of Christ at Christmas, but our personal preparation for His Second Coming: "Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come."
The traditional Collect (Opening Prayer) of the last Sunday of the Church year began "Stir up the wills of Thy faithful people, we beseech Thee, O Lord..." With this request to God to "stir up" our wills, this day was traditionally called Stir-Up Sunday. Because the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King on the last Sunday of the year, "Stir-Up Sunday" can now be the First Sunday of Advent. The traditional Collect of the First Sunday is asking God to stir up His might: "Stir up Thy might, we beg Thee, and come." Many families create a traditional plum pudding or fruit cake or some other recipe that all the family and guests can "stir-up." This activity of stirring-up the ingredients symbolizes our hearts that must be stirred in preparation for Christ's birth.
What You Need to Know About Advent
- A Short Explanation of the Advent season and Its Significance in the Liturgical Year
- The History, Customs and Folklore of Advent
- Resources for Celebrating Advent in the Home
Mass Readings for the First Sunday of Advent, Cycle B:
The First Reading is taken from Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7. Today’s lesson from Isaiah has many instructions for us. If we take them to heart, they can help us to prepare ourselves for the great feast of Christmas. The prophet Isaiah reminds the people of Judah of the dreadful fate their sins are preparing for them. Nevertheless, he has words of hope and promises of a glorious future, that is, the messianic age, for the remnant who will repent and remain faithful to God. He pleads to Yahweh, the Father of the Chosen People, for mercy. He prays the tgod will come down among them. This prayer was answered when the Son of God became man in the Incarnation.
The prophet's prayer has been heard, his devout wish has been fulfilled. We are preparing ourselves to commemorate this extraordinary act of divine love for us--the coming of the Son of God as a baby, born of a lowly, human mother in the midst of poverty. We are preparing to celebrate the great feast of Christ, the birth-day of Christ, our divine Redeemer. Like the prophet, we must confess that we too are unworthy of God's love and of God's pardon.
The Second Reading is taken from the Letter of St. Paul to tFirst Corinthians 1:3-9. In the verses chosen for today’s second reading, St. Paul answers reports concerning disputes and difficulties which had reached him. The letter was written from Ephesus in 57 A.D.
During the four weeks of aDvent, the Church in her liturgy keeps reminding us of these basic truths of our faith. In helping us to prepare ourselves to welcome the birth of Christ, the stress is always on the necessity of living our Christian lives, so that at whatever moment he calls us we shall be ready to meet him and be found worthy to enter eternal life. This is what St. Paul taught the Corinthian Christians and what he is teaching each one of us today.
The Gospel is taken from Mark 13:33-37. "Watch!" is Christ's advice and command. WE know not the year or the day or the hour when our master will call us. That year, day and hour will be unexpected, even if we are advanced in years or have been suffering from prolonged illness. We shall not be unprepared for it if we have tried all our lives to be faithful to Christ and to our Christian faith.
This holy season of Advent is an opportune time for each one of us to look into his life and see how he stands with God. Christmas should reminder us of the second coming of Christ, which will be very soon for all of us.
—Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.
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