We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia who have walked upon and cared for this land for thousands of years. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We honour and acknowledge the continuing deep spiritual relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to this country and commit ourselves to the ongoing journey of reconciliation.
As Christmas is fast approaching again for another year, we offer you this Advent reflections book, “Be Ready” . We hope that in the busyness of it all you can find some time to slow down and take in what this beautiful Advent season has to offer each and every one of us. Get a group together and gather around the Advent Wreath at your local church in prayer. As you light up the candle(s) each week, it reminds us of the passage of time and that Christ is coming. The songs that we have suggested each week are well-known and so is readily available through various means including As One Voice CDs in your parish. Of course, you may have a particular version of the suggested song that you may like to share with the group from YouTube. This book will also be available online on the diocesan website and will come complete with a video media link each week for those who would like to use the versions of the songs available there.
This is a special year with our Jubilee in the Catholic Church. The General Calendar for the Jubilee includes many celebrations, but as we only have four weeks of Advent, only four Jubilees could be included. The four Jubilee commemorations chosen may be the lesser-known ones, but they tie in well with the Gospels and are relevant to the people of our diocese: Jubilee of Volunteers, Jubilee of Sport, Jubilee of Prisoners, and Jubilee of Consolation. Please take the time as a group or even by yourself, to reflect on the Gospel each week in light of these Jubilees. We hope that this prayer resource will help guide your prayers this Advent season and “Be Ready” for Christmas. Every blessing to you and yours this Christmas. May the birth of Christ bring you many wonderful graces this festive season!
Fr Hau Le
1st SUNDAY of ADVENT
JUBILEE OF VOLUNTEERS
Let us gather around the Advent Wreath and light up the first Violet candle. Place ourselves in the presence of God and each other as we make the sign of the cross together. Please join in singing…
O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Neale/Helmore)
As we play this song, let us now begin by lighting up the First Violet Candle.
The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept all away. It will be like this when the Son of Man comes. Then of two men in the fields one is taken, one left; of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left. ‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection:
While our Gospel is about the coming of Jesus at the end of time, Advent is about the coming of Jesus’ birth. And so, the season of Advent gives us a pattern of preparing and waiting every year until Jesus comes again. Waiting and preparing can mean different things to different people – we might consider for a moment that being a volunteer can be a way of doing this.
Being a volunteer for a chosen activity means that you give your time to doing something for another person’s benefit and we have so many in our parishes and we thank them for their good work. Volunteering may well be the perfect way to prepare for the coming of Jesus because it assumes a certain “readiness” for the task at hand, and waiting doesn’t necessarily mean sitting still but going about our business in a way that shows love to our neighbour because we believe that Jesus really is coming!
Questions for sharing:
- If I knew that Jesus was coming to my house today, what would I do differently?
- Does my volunteering have any spiritual significance?
- How will I prepare for Christmas differently this year?
(R.) Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
I rejoiced when I heard them say:
‘Let us go to God’s house.’
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem
(Response)
It is there that the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord.
For Israel’s law it is,
there to praise the Lord’s name.
There were set the thrones of judgement
of the house of David.
(Response)
For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
‘Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
in your palaces, peace!’
(Response)
For love of my brethren and friends
I say: ‘Peace upon you!’
For love of the house of the Lord
I will ask for your good.
(Response)
- We give thanks for all the volunteers in our parishes; may the Lord touch their hearts and draw them in more deeply into the mystery of his love. Lord hear us.
- May we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit to prepare well this Advent. Lord hear us.
- We pray for our parish family, that it will be renewed at the start of this new liturgical year. Lord hear us.
May this time of prayer, O Lord, in which we have participated profit us even now, as we walk amid passing things, to love the things of heaven and look towards your coming. Through Christ our Lord.
AMEN
2nd SUNDAY of ADVENT
JUBILEE OF SPORT
Let us gather around the Advent Wreath and light up a second Violet candle. Place ourselves in the presence of God and each other as we make the sign of the cross together. Please join in singing…
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
As we play this song, let us now begin by lighting up the Second Violet Candle.
The one who follows me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire
In due course John the Baptist appeared; he preached in the wilderness of Judaea and this was his message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said:
A voice cries in the wilderness:
Prepare a way for the Lord,
make his paths straight.
This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather belt round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit, and do not presume to tell yourselves, “We have Abraham for our father,” because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones. Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire. I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who follows me is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection:
Today we encounter the austere John the Baptist. Take a moment to go over how the Gospel describes him again and imagine what he looks like. The image that you get is quite amusing. But this is all that John the Baptist needed in life because all that he owns are only those things that are necessary for life. As we meditate on the Gospel this week let us think about playing a sport and the gear that we bring. We only have on ourselves the things that will allow us to do well in that particular sport, anything extra and it may well weigh us down and prevent us from achieving our goal. Our faith can be likened to sport as it is also a goal-orientated activity towards God. We might just take some time to reflect on the things that are weighing us down
and preventing us from reaching God this Advent.
Questions for sharing:
- How can we unburden ourselves from the “baggage” that we tend to carry around unnecessarily?
- What insights can sport offer our journey of faith?
- What goals have we set for ourselves this Advent?
(R.) Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement
(Response)
In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to earth’s bounds
(Response)
For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
And save the lives of the poor
(Response)
May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.
(Response)
- We pray that our goal in life is always directed towards God. Lord hear us.
- That we may find time for rest and recreation these Christmas holidays after a very busy year. Lord hear us.
- We pray that we may be content with all that we have been blessed with and have the courage to let of things that are not good for us. Lord hear us.
Loving Father, help us to finish this race we call life. So that when our life’s journey is over, we may meet the spiritual goals we’ve set for ourselves here in your loving presence. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.
AMEN
3rd SUNDAY of ADVENT (Gaudete Sunday)
JUBILEE OF PRISONERS
Let us gather around the Advent Wreath once again and light up the Rose candle this week. Place ourselves in the presence of God and each other as we make the sign of the cross together. Please join in singing…
Silent Night
As we play this song, let us now begin by lighting up the Rose Candle.
‘A greater than John the Baptist has never been seen’
John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?’ Jesus answered, ‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.’ As the messengers were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the people about John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No? Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Oh no, those who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces. Then what did you go out for? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet: he is the one of whom scripture says:
‘Look, I am going to send my messenger before you;
he will prepare your way before you.‘
I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.’
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection:
Today, John the Baptist finds himself in prison. And so, we turn our attention to those who are incarcerated in prisons, especially those within our diocese. Think about those who are serving time inside until their sentence is up. Some are fortunate to have visitors to help restore some dignity to their situation, others may not be so fortunate. For those of us outside, we can sometimes feel like we are in prison of a different kind. Sometimes we feel we can’t break free from various things in our lives: addictions, destructive habits, occasions of sin, and an unhealthy lifestyle. In times like these we turn ourselves over to a higher power for help, and like John the Baptist we ask, “are you the one who is to come?” Jesus says, “Yes, I am the one!” The news would’ve filled John the Baptist with tremendous hope and joy as it would for anyone who longs for the coming of Christ.
Questions for sharing:
- How would you feel if you were to visit those serving time in prison? Do you find it confronting?
- In what ways can we be stuck in our own prison? And how can we help ourselves and others to get out of it?
- Why does Jesus think that John the Baptist is the greatest?
(R.) Lord, come and save us.
It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,
who is just to those who are oppressed.
It is he who gives bread to the hungry,
the Lord, who sets prisoners free,
(Response)
It is the Lord who gives sight to the blind,
who raises up those who are bowed down,
the Lord, who protects the stranger
and upholds the widow and orphan.
(Response)
It is the Lord who loves the just
but thwarts the path of the wicked.
The Lord will reign for ever,
Zion’s God, from age to age.
(Response)
- For the times we feel trapped in our own prison, may God send us the help we need to break free from it. Lord hear us.
- For all who are serving time in prison, that they may do so faithfully and find ways to use that time well. Lord hear us.
- For those who society rejects, may we always see the face of Christ in all our brothers and sisters. Lord hear us.
God of all consolation, be with all your people especially in their time of need. So that knowing your love, they may ever rejoice in your friendship and love. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
AMEN
4th SUNDAY of ADVENT
JUBILEE OF CONSOLATION
Let us gather around the Advent Wreath and light up the final Violet candle along with the others. Place ourselves in the presence of God and each other as we make the sign of the cross together. Please join in singing…
O Come All Ye Faithful
As we play this song, let us now begin by lighting up the Third Violet Candle.
How Jesus Christ came to be born
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’
When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection:
The Jubilee of Consolation shows that the church never forgets our loved ones who have died, but also those who they leave behind. Sometimes it takes years or even longer before we can get over someone who has been taken away from us. The Christmas story is full of hardship, misunderstanding, and suffering. But at the centre of it all is the consoling presence of a very special baby that makes it all worthwhile, in the hope that he can reinvigorate those who have lost their way in life. This child’s name is Emmanuel which means “God-is-with-us”, to console his people with his loving presence. Much consolation is needed this Christmas by those who feel alone or have no one to celebrate with. We can reach out to these people by praying with our hands and feet this Christmas and be the consoling presence of God they’ve been looking for.
Questions for sharing:
- What do you think life will be like when we leave this earth?
- How can we help those who find it hard to move on after their loved ones have passed away?
- How has taking some time to reflect and pray this Advent helped me?
- What does keeping Christ in Christmas mean? And what does Christmas mean to me this year?
(R.) Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
(Response)
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things.
(Response)
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
(Response)
- We pray for all families who have been doing it tough this year. May the church’s effort help lighten their burden and give them hope. Lord hear us.
- May all who have lost a loved one this past year, find consolation in God and His people in the parish. Lord hear us.
- That we may always keep Christ in our Christmas celebrations with our family and friends this year. Lord hear us.
- That the joy of the birth of Christ may remain with us all year long. Lord hear us.
Having received this pledge of eternal redemption, we pray, almighty God, that, as the feast day of our salvation draws ever nearer, so we may press forward all the more eagerly to the worthy celebration of the mystery of your Son’s Nativity. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
AMEN
© The scriptural quotations are taken from the Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday & Co Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.
The English translation of the Psalm Responses and Gospel Verses, and the Lenten Gospel Acclamations, and the Titles, Summaries, and Conclusion of the Readings, from the Lectionary for Mass © 1997, 1981, 1968, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.