HAPPY 82ND BIRTHDAY, POPE FRANCIS!
AD MULTOS ANNOS, FRANCISCUS!

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 62 The Priests of the Monastery
Mass: Gn 49:2, 8-10; Resp Ps 72; Mt 1:1-17

We have a beautiful lyrical movement from the Second Sunday of Advent to this Third Sunday: Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday to rejoice and give praise.  Like a musical composition, the composer’s main theme is building towards its climax, always with its immediate goal present in mind and heart: ‘the God who is coming’. 

Pope St Damasus I (304-384)

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 58:1-16 The Procedure for Receiving New Members
Mass: Is 40:1-11; Resp Ps 96 (Is 40:10ab); Mt 18:12-14

Human Rights Day

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 57 The Artisans of the Monastery
Mass: Is 35:1-10; Resp Ps 85 (Is 35:4f); Lk 5:17-26

Come, O Lord, visit us in peace, that we may rejoice before you with a blameless heart.

The Second Sunday of Advent opens with the cry of John the Baptist out of the wilderness: ‘Prepare the Way’. This cry is intended to pierce our hearts so that we may be ready for the new unfolding life of ‘the God who is to come’.