Level of ceremony: normal

Liturgical color: Purple

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Entrance chant

Behold, the Lord is coming, and all his holy ones with him, and great light will shine on that day.

Collect

Lord, hear our prayers and help those who are in trouble and need. May the presence of your Son, Jesus Christ, born on earth, cheer us and keep us from falling into sin. We pray…

First Reading : Is 11, 1-10

“The Lord judges the poor with righteousness.”

From the book of the prophet Isaiah.

On that day a bud will sprout from the stump of Jesse.

The Spirit of God will rest on it, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, and it will make him know the fear of God.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, nor decide by what he hears with his ears. But with righteousness he will judge the poor, and with equity he will plead for the humble of the earth.

He will strike down the oppressor with his word, and with his voice he will slay the wicked.

He put righteousness as his belt and faithfulness as his loins.

The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat, and the calf and the lion and the male lamb together; and a little child will lead them.

The calf and the bear will feed together, and their cubs will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the viper’s den, and the weaned child will put his hand into the viper’s den.

Those wild beasts did not hurt or kill anyone on all my holy mountain.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

In that day the root of Jesse stood as a banner for the peoples.

The nations will call upon you, and your grave will be glorified.

That is the Word of God.

Responsorial Psalm : Ps 71:2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

Answer: Righteousness and abundant peace will flourish during his reign.

Chant: Lord, give wise judgment to the king, and righteousness to the king’s son, that he may judge your people with righteousness and the poor with equity.

Righteousness and abundant peace will flourish during his reign, until the moon no longer gives its light. And he will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

For he will rescue the poor from the mighty, and the afflicted and those who have no helper. He will have compassion on the weak and needy, and save the lives of the afflicted.

Chant: Blessed be his name forever, for his name endures like the sun. Through him all the tribes of the earth will be blessed, and all the nations will praise him.

Alleluia: Ps 84:8

Alleluia, alleluia – Lord, show us your mercy and grant us your salvation. – Alleluia.

Gospel : Luke 10, 21-24

“Jesus filled with joy in the Holy Spirit”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke.

At that time, Jesus, filled with joy through the Holy Spirit, said: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for such is your will.

My Father has given me everything.

No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see; for I tell you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Prayer over the offerings

Lord, please accept our offerings and our humble prayers. We have no merits and only look to your mercy for help. We pray…

Preface of Advent I

Communion song

The just Judge will reward those who eagerly await His coming.

Prayer after communion

Lord, you have made us partakers of the holy mystery, and you have nourished us with the bread of heaven. Teach us now to consider earthly realities with wisdom and to be attentive to the eternal realities of heaven. We pray…

Reflection

REVELATION TO THE LITTLE ONE

(Luke 10:21-24)

1. The fundamental idea in today’s Gospel: God only reveals the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven to simple and humble souls. Those who trust in their own wisdom do not know the secrets of heaven. God loves the lowly and defends the weak. It is in the smallness of man that the mystery of love is revealed.

2. To know God and to enjoy His salvation, we need to become humble, simple, and humble. Jesus was made aware of His plan of salvation by the Father, and through Jesus, He also revealed it to the humble and simple, while He hid it from the proud and arrogant. Therefore, Jesus joyfully thanked the Father, not only for giving Him the fullness of the Holy Spirit and all authority in heaven and on earth, but also for revealing the Kingdom of Heaven to the humble and the little ones.

3. Who are the little ones? Specifically, they are the disciples of Jesus and the people in the places where the disciples preached. They are not like the people in the cities that Jesus severely rebuked in the previous Gospel passage (10,13,15). Those people considered themselves wise and did not accept the Gospel. They were like buckets full of water, so no matter how much water was added, it would all overflow.

As for Jesus’ disciples and the people in these places, they were humble, aware of their ignorance and weakness, so they happily accepted the Gospel, like empty barrels that can hold the amount of water poured in. Jesus joyfully thanked God the Father for allowing those little ones to see, hear and know the Gospel.

5. In June 2000, Francis Collins announced his important discovery of the “genome”, decoding the secret related to the formation of human beings. It is worth mentioning that in his first statements, Collins, the world’s leading scientist and an atheist, affirmed that he was conquered by God because of the miraculous beauty of the genome, which he called  “God’s own language”.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus praises the Father  for his unique language, which is hidden from the “  wise and learned” and revealed only to  “little ones .” In other words, only those with the eyes of a child can read and understand that language, the language of providential love. These are eyes that can marvel at God’s wonders and place themselves in God’s hands. Not only that, Jesus also affirms that they will “ see ” the great and sublime things that many people long for (5 minutes with the Word of God).

6. A shining example of smallness for us to imitate: Saint Therese of the Child Jesus experienced the Kingdom of Heaven because she had a spirit of simplicity and smallness: doing small things, as she confided and prayed: ” I am a very small soul who can only offer small things to God” . Thanks to the spirit of trust in God, she felt God’s love even in the darkest moments of her soul, she still experienced the Kingdom of Heaven: “Even when I face trials and illnesses, I am not afraid, because God is always with me, because He has supported me since I was a child, and will support me forever until my last breath”. It is the spirit of small trust that makes her touch the Kingdom of Heaven, in God she finds peace of mind when she places each burden of illness on God.

Small, nestle in God’s arms, entrust everything to be supported by God.

7.  Story : Scientist George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver, the famous scientist, once talked about how he asked God: “God, what is the universe made of?”

God replied, “George, the universe is too big for you to understand. Just leave it to me.”

He humbly asked again: “Lord, if the universe is too big for me, what about a pea?” God said: “George, you have asked the right thing for you. You can understand a pea, so I will help you.”

So George left the universe to God and discovered the mighty power of the little bean. And from the bean, he developed 200 useful products.

He never complained that God did not reveal to him the deeper mysteries.

                                                                   Father Giuse Dinh Lap Liem