The readings for the 1st week of Advent end today with Jesus going “to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.” His heart goes out to them.

And his heart goes out to us.

The towns and villages of Galilee won’t be the last places Jesus goes. We are called to go out with him for the hours we can. ( Matthew 9:35ff)  As God’s harvest goes on, he calls others to join him and he empowers them.

As we end this first week of Advent, I’m grateful to those who so skillfully gave us after the 2nd Vatican Council the lectionary readings and prayers for this season. It just didn’t happen. Prayerful hands, steeped in the scriptures and the liturgy, humbly serving the church, gave them to us. Blessed are they.

I hope the liturgy, its readings and prayers, will be a treasure we appreciate more and more. It forms us in our faith and tells us how to live and it surprises us day by day. A renewed liturgy and a renewed understanding of the scriptures were goals of the 2nd Vatican Council, goals still to be fulfilled, I think.

I found this quote from Pius XI appropriate:

“For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year – in fact, forever. The church’s teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man’s nature” (Encyclical Quas primas, 11 December 1925).”

Isaiah’s promise of a holy mountain will be fulfilled, our readings today say. The Messianic times arrive with the coming of Jesus Christ. In our first reading today, Isaiah renews the promise of a holy mountain to exiles, like those in the Middle East, Ukraine, Somalia, and like us.  

Isaiah Promises…On this mountain, Yahweh will prepare for you a banquet rich in goodness. On this mountain, Yahweh will remove the veil of darkness covering God’s people. Death will be destroyed, you shall weep no more. You shall rejoice in your God on this mountain.    (Isaiah 25:6-9)

 Here’s a music version of “On that Holy Mountain”