Third Sunday of Advent - JOY!

JOY be with you!

JOY is the focus of Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent.

Pope Francis reminded us in his message this morning that this JOY comes because God is always with us, "The Christian message is called the 'gospel,' that is, 'good news,' an announcement of joy for all people ... Christian joy, like hope, has its foundation in the faithfulness of God, in the certainty that He always keeps his promises."

The Church reading for today is from Isaiah, a reminder that Advent is a time of anticipating the Second Coming of Christ - and not just a Nativity Feast...we celebrate the Hope brought by the birth of an infant, the Light in the darkness... and that this Hope is ultimately brought by God's Salvation!

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." - Isaiah 2:2-5

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