Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say Rejoice! We are rejoicing as we have lit the pink candle and we are almost to the Birthday of Christ!
Alright, I’ll admit, I don’t usually post all 3 readings for Sunday Mass and the Responsorial Psalm, but the first 2 readings and psalm really spoke to me. While they speak to the 3rd Sunday of Advent, they also speak to consecrated life!
I pray that with the help of Our Lord and Our Lady that I am doing what the first reading speaks of, in working with children from the hard places and helping them and maybe their family to heal! So many of these children are brokenhearted, they are the captives who need liberty proclaimed and the prisoners who need to be set free. Many people don’t see them as brokenhearted captives who are prisoners needing to be set free!
I pray that I rejoice as Our Mother Mary did in praying the Magnificat! That all that I do is done for and through Our Lord.
That I bring myself to rejoice and pray always! That I am thankful in all things, that the peace of Christ may flow through me to those I am serving.
I know people wonder and don’t always ask out loud as in the Gospel, what are you doing, what are you about. I am about the Lords work and witness of living consecrated life and caring for children in need. I pray that I am preparing the way for Christ to enter and be born into the hearts and souls of the children we serve and also their parents!
Our 1st Reading for Mass and the Gospel for today are the following:
Reading 1IS 61:1-2A, 10-11
he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners,
to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God.
I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul;
for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in a mantle of justice,
like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels.
As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up,
so will the Lord GOD make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.
Responsorial Psalm LK 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
R/ My soul rejoices in my God.
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
R/ My soul rejoices in my God.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
R/ My soul rejoices in my God.
Reading 21 THES 5:16-24
Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good.
Refrain from every kind of evil.
May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body,
be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.
Gospel JN 1:6-8, 19-28
so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
And this is the testimony of John.
When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him
to ask him, “Who are you?” He admitted and did not deny it,
but admitted, “I am not the Christ.” So they asked him,
“What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”
So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us?
What do you have to say for yourself?”
He said:
“I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,
‘make straight the way of the Lord,’”
as Isaiah the prophet said.”
Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him,
“Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?”
John answered them, “I baptize with water;
but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me,
whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,
where John was baptizing.
