A Homily – The Second Sunday of Advent (Year B)

First Reading – Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 84(85): 9-14(Advent) ©

Second Reading – 2 Peter 3:8-14 ©

Gospel Acclamation Luke 3:4, 6

The Gospel According to Mark 1:1 - 8 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The prophet expresses a great hope, a profound hope for the future wellness of all people depicted in his understanding of our common origin and destiny as children of God, the creator of the universe. Isaiah expresses certainty in regard to the expectation of atonement, not just for the people of Israel or the children of Judah, but for all people. This teaching was fundamental to the foundations of the early church and the whole of Christian movement accordingly.

 John the Baptist stood in the tradition of Isiah, he declared this in the wilderness; he called the faithful to action, instructing them to prepare the way. His was a voice of expectation, instructing the faithful that the entire creation will bend to the will of God; every valley and every mountain, from the cliffs to the plains, that the entire scope of God’s creative work will yield to the divine plan.

 Isaiah, John and Jesus all taught us to see that God, despite the power of the almighty, comes to us as a shepherd tending the flock, like a mother ewe among her children, not as a lord or a king or a general at the head of an army.

 To be clear:

 Isaiah also speaks of God’s justice as punishing, reminding the people of Judah of what have suffered for their crimes and of future punishments to come if they persist in their sinful ways.

 Remember this.

 Their crimes were crimes against the people, against their sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers. Their crimes took place in the world. They made enemies among foreign powers and they suffered on account of their wickedness, vanity and broken promises.

 They were not punished by God for their crimes. The justice they encountered was the justice of human beings. It was harsh, it was painful, many people were slaughtered, many more were taken into captivity, but this was not the work of God, the creator; we know this because God does not intervene in the affairs of the world.

 God did not end the captivity of the children of Israel, they did.

 In the midst of their travails came Isaiah, then came John hundreds of years later, John was followed by Jesus, together they reminded the people that God is with them still, and that in the end all things will be resolved in love.

 Remember.

 Everything belongs to God: all lands, all seas, all planets, all stars, all galaxies, everything and everyone that is in them. We belong to God…not in the way my pen and paper belong to me. God does not own us, we are not property, We belong to9 God because God is with us, Hod is in us, we were created in the divine image and God sustains us. We are connected, in relationship; God is the divine ground upon which we all stand and exercise the franchise of being.

 This is not hubris.

 It is greater hubris to think that God loves a special people, one tribe above all others, than it is to think that the Israelites escaped bondage under their own power.

 Know this!

 God is never angry or indignant with the people, neither does God rescue us from our plights or the miseries of the world. When we depict God in this way we are expressing our understanding of the divine according to the limits of our own imaginations, and the predilections of our desires.  

 God desires that we rescue one another.

 Bear witness to Peter’s struggle.

 His mission was to call people to holiness and to a just way of life. He spoke about the fruits of such a life and the reasonable expectation that if you live a good life, good things will come to you…though if truth be told there is no guarantee of that.

 Peter knew this.

 Treating all people with goodness and mercy, telling the truth as best as you understand it, in no way does doing these things guarantee that you will be treated the same. The divine promise is not that you will experience justice and mercy in this world, but that there will be justice and mercy in the next, and that if we want it in this world we must advocate for it ourselves.

 Peter had been preaching on this and the return of Jesus for many years, believing that the Church would usher in the new world of justice and grace, but two-thousand years has gone by and it has not happened…not yet.

 It will no happen in the next two-thousand, or the two-thousand after that.

 Be mindful!

 God will bring the world to an end only when God’s purpose for the world has been fulfilled. We are called on ro trust that God is loving and God is patient, and that it is God’s desire to save everyone. It is God’s desire to leave no one behind, and this is the true foundation of Christian faith, in keeping with the tradition of Isaiah.

 Read your histories. Though it has had a mixed record of success the Christian tradition has always attempted to root itself in historical realities. The study of the Christian tradition gave birth to modern historical and literary criticism, without which, as a culture, we would have no understanding of the uses and limitations of history whatsoever.

 Appreciate the fact that this took eighteen hundred years to develop.

 Our narrative concerning the life and mission, the arrest and killing of Jesus are a part of the testimony of our faith. These stories help us to locate in time the singular moment when our cultural commitment to the teachings of Jesus took place.

 Through the liturgy we remember the rule of Tiberius, heir to Augustus, the Herodian dynasty and Pontius Pilate. We recall the role that Pilate played in killing Jesus, we shout it out at every hour of every day in all parts of the world; that Jesus suffered under his hand, was crucified and buried. This story is told unceasingly and without end.

 Be mindful!

 It is long since time that we, as heirs to the ministry and teaching of Jesus, forgive Pilate for the role he played in that political murder, including everyone else who betrayed and denied him, like Peter and Judas and so many others of his followers

 John the Baptist taught us to repent and be forgiven, but Jesus taught us to simply forgive. He forgave those who killed him even as they were torturing him to death; he asked God to forgive them when he was up on the cross breathing his last painful breaths. It is time we followed his example and did the same. The promise of Isaiah, which John echoed in the wilderness cannot be received by us unless and until we do.

 Know this!

 God is the author of our salvation but we are its agents, it is incumbent on us to proceed with the healing, if the human race is to be healed.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today:

 Isaiah did not predict the coming of John and Jesus. We know that this is true, because we understand that God created us in freedom, and nothing in the world is pre-determined.

 Isaiah’s movement took place over the course of a decade or more, its followers and proponents witnessed the collapse of David’s kingdom and the scattering of Israel into the remote reaches of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires.

 John the Baptist did not predict the coming of Jesus, though he may have expressed the hope that someone like Jesus would come after him and continue his work, and he may have believed that his cousin had the chops to do it.

 In the time of John and Jesus the people of Judah and the children of Israel were in much the same place as they had been six hundred years earlier. They had rebuilt their cities, re-dug their wells and constructed a new temple in the land of their forebears, but they were still divided among themselves, factionalized and politically weak. They were still subject to foreign powers, and still subject to the capriciousness of kings.

 John saw his death coming because he understood the political temper of the men and women holding power in his day, like Jesus who came after him he accepted that death rather than risk the lives of his followers in a vain attempt to forestall the inevitable.

 They were ordinary human beings who accomplished extraordinary things, and they were killed for it in an altogether ordinary way.

 

First Reading – Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 ©

The Glory of the Lord Shall be Revealed and All Mankind Shall See It

‘Console my people, console them’ says your God.

‘Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended, that her sin is atoned for, that she has received from the hand of the Lord double punishment for all her crimes.’

A voice cries, ‘Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord.

Make a straight highway for our God across the desert.

Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low.

Let every cliff become a plain, and the ridges a valley; then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

Go up on a high mountain, joyful messenger to Zion.

Shout with a loud voice, joyful messenger to Jerusalem.

Shout without fear, say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God.’

Here is the Lord coming with power, his arm subduing all things to him.

The prize of his victory is with him, his trophies all go before him.

He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 84(85): 9-14(Advent) ©

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.

I will hear what the Lord God has to say,

  a voice that speaks of peace,

  peace for his people.

His help is near for those who fear him

  and his glory will dwell in our land.

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.

Mercy and faithfulness have met;

  justice and peace have embraced.

Faithfulness shall spring from the earth

  and justice look down from heaven.

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.

The Lord will make us prosper

  and our earth shall yield its fruit.

Justice shall march before him

  and peace shall follow his steps.

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.

 

Second Reading – 2 Peter 3:8-14 ©

We Are Waiting for the New Heavens and the New Earth

There is one thing, my friends, that you must never forget: that with the Lord, ‘a day’ can mean a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not being slow to carry out his promises, as anybody else might be called slow; but he is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways. The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and fall apart, the earth and all that it contains will be burnt up.

Since everything is coming to an end like this, you should be living holy and saintly lives while you wait and long for the Day of God to come, when the sky will dissolve in flames and the elements melt in the heat. What we are waiting for is what he promised: the new heavens and new earth, the place where righteousness will be at home. So then, my friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace.

 

Gospel Acclamation Luke 3:4, 6

Alleluia, alleluia!

Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight, and all mankind shall see the salvation of God.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:1 - 8 ©

A Voice Cries in the Wilderness: Prepare a Way for the Lord

The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah:

“Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way.

A voice cries in the wilderness:

Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.”

And so it was that John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. John wore a garment of camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey. In the course of his preaching he said, ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’

 

The Second Sunday of Advent (Year B)

A Homily – The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading – Genesis 3:9-15,20 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 97(98):1-4

Second Reading – Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 1:28

The Gospel According to Luke – 1:26-38 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The reading for today from Genesis is a fable, drawn from the book of fables; we cannot take this narrative literally.

 Eve is not the mother of all living beings, this is a metaphor.

 The garden of Eden was not paradise, it refers to the early agricultural civilization of Summer. Adam, or Adamah is the one who came from the soil, a man who tilled the earth.

 This myth does not concern the creation of the universe. Rather, it narrates a critical moment in the history of the Hebrew people, know at the time as the Apiru, or Iberu. This fable recalls their transition from a time when they lived in a state of relative safety and security in service to the Sumerian Kings, followed by the hardship of exile and expulsion, whether self-imposed or forced as the consequence of a broken relationship.

 Consider the teaching of the psalmist.

 It is right and good to praise God, the creator of the universe, it is right and good because the created world is miraculous and beyond the scope of human comprehension. But never forget, God does not determine who will be victorious in combat or a given contest. God has no enemies, and in God, within whom all things exist and have their being…in God there is no conflict.

 Be mindful.

 It is not God’s justice that we demonstrate in our courts of law, that is human justice; when human justice approximates the justice of God…justice tempered by mercy, justice that is restorative, justice that heals…it is then and only then that justice is good.

 Remember.

 God is kind and faithful to all people with equal measure.

 If you seek to be an instrument of justice, then you must judge fairly, judge kindly and always keep before you the love God bears toward all..

 Remember the life of Jesus, and God; whom he called Father and consider this:

 Is god glorious?

 What is glory?

 The apostle informs us that God’s greatest desire is to be in relationship to us, like a parent who loves their children, desiring that each and every one of us comes to the full knowledge of the divine.

 There is hope in the knowledge of God, and the hope we have for ourselves, like the hope we hold out for those we love, is a hope that God wishes we would extend to everyone, even those we do not love, for that is the way that leads to the knowledge of God, and our relationship to the divine.

 If you think that God has promised riches and glories to be the inheritance of the saints, remember this, the first will be last and the last will be first. Spiritual riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things; grace is a manifestation of love, we find it through companionship and friendship with God, and we discover God through our relationships with one another.

 Be mindful.

 God chose all of us, and in so doing God was determined to accept us as we are; God accepted us even when only the possibility of our being existed. God accepted us, poured forth the divine love and prepared a place for us according to the God’s will.

 God does nothing out of vanity; God did not do this so that God could hear us praise the divine name, and gives no special consideration to anyone, whether they follow the way Jesus taught…or not, whether they were the first workers in the field of good works, or came late in the day, whether they are more or less good…bad.

 Whoever you are and whatever you bring with you, God loves and has prepared a place for you.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today regarding the birth of Jesus:

 You must understand that the stories of his Jesus’ birth, beginning with the annunciation as it presented here, these are myths like the Genesis fable we discussed earlier.

 More significantly, they are intentional fabrications that amount to a heap of propaganda and outright lies. The Genesis mythology aggregated slowly, over the course of centuries, from an oral tradition before it was ever set down in script.

 The Jesus mythology was a contrivance from the outset, and the version of it that we inherited from the Church was ultimately a product of Roman imperialism, forever conditioned by the machinations of an empire.  

 Be mindful.

 The spirit of God Is the spirit of truth and can never be served falsehoods and lies.

 The annunciation did not happen as has been recorded, the spirit of God did not impregnate a virgin woman, that is not how we procreate.

 

First Reading – Genesis 3:9-15,20 ©

The Mother of All Those Who Live

After Adam had eaten of the tree the Lord God called to him. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’

  Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,

‘Be accursed beyond all cattle, all wild beasts.

You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust every day of your life.

I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring.

It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.’

The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 97(98):1-4

Acclaim the King, the Lord.

Sing a new song to the Lord,

  for he has worked wonders.

His right hand, his holy arm,

  have brought him victory.

The Lord has shown his saving power,

  and before all nations he has shown his justice.

He has remembered to show his kindness

  and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth

  have seen the saving power of our God.

Rejoice in God, all the earth.

  Break forth in triumph and song!

Sing to the Lord on the lyre,

  with the lyre and with music.

With trumpets and the sound of the horn,

  sound jubilation to the Lord, our king.

Let the sea resound in its fullness,

  all the earth and all its inhabitants.

The rivers will clap their hands,

  and the mountains will exult at the presence of the Lord,

  for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge all the world in justice,

  and the peoples with fairness.

 

Second Reading - Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 ©

Before the World Was Made, God Chose Us in Christ

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, and it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 1:28

Alleluia, alleluia!

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!

Blessed art thou among women.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke – 1:26-38 ©

'I Am the Handmaid of the Lord'

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

 

A Homily – The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation

Observation - December 8th, 2023, Friday

it is warm outside

            for December

the air is dry

in the apartment

there is a jet overhead

I can hear its descent

engines roaring

on the way to its landing

 

there is laughter

on the sidewalk

women laughing

the first-full day

of Hanukkah

A Homily - The First Sunday of Advent (Year B)

First Reading – Isaiah 63:16-17& 64:1, 3-8 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 79(80):2-3, 15-16, 18-19 ©

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Psalm 84:8

The Gospel According to Mark 13:33 - 37 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Consider the words of the prophet and trust in God, God the creator of the universe and parent to us all.

 We are all laden with guilt, each of us bearing countless transgressions, every one of which has born fruit in the world, festered in our hearts and done real harm to ourselves and countless others.

 As the prophet says:

 We wear our integrity like a filthy cloth.

 Despite all of this, God loves us. God has promised to deliver us, all of us together, God has promised not to lose a single one.

 Be mindful!

 The psalmist misunderstands how historical events unfold, and how the will of God is manifest in them.

 Know this.

 God is the shepherd of all people, not of Israel only.

 God does not reside in a palace or sit on a throne, God is not a general at the head of an army. Such things are human institutions, built and sustained by human vanities; when we imagine God thus we do a disservice to the divine.

 The face of God shines on everyone; look for it in the face of your neighbor, in the face of your enemy, in the faces of those who persecute you.

 Be mindful.

 We all struggle in this world together and only the death of the body will deliver us from the human conditions, from the dilemmas we face or the machinations of other’s.

 We are all subject to the vicissitudes of nature, sickness and diseases…therefore be kind to one another.

 Know this.

 God did not rescue the Israelites from Egypt. God did not send the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Ptolemy’s or the Romans to punish the people. God did not destroy the temples and scatter the Jews into the diaspora; God did not do these things…human beings did, and God will not protect you or show you favor in this world.

 It is up to us, God’s children, to love, show mercy and care for those who are downtrodden…this is the task we have been given, it is our sacred obligation.

 Consider the words of the apostle.

 If you have been baptized you have accepted an appointment to be an apostle, to share the good news, the good news of God’s love for us and the promise that God has prepared the way for our salvation; for the salvation of humanity, for the salvation of all people in all times and all places.

 We are all people of the way…every single one of us is a saint in the making.

 Remember this.

 Jesus is not a lord, he is not a king, he was our brother, and is our friend.

 Jesus preached on the faithfulness of God, whom he called abba…father, and but God does not work in the world the way the apostle imagined.

 Be mindful.

 God is revealed in the good works done by one human being for another, whether they are done in the name of God which we recognize or some name that is foreign to us, or in no name at all; God is revealed in the good works we do, in relationship to one another.

 Be mindful!

 God will not steady you and keep you without blame, that is for you to do in the company of your friends and family

 God has made you free, whether you live a good life or a bad life is up to you. God will speak to you, from your heart; God will speak about the good life, but so will the voices of fear and greed, and hate, they will also speak to you from your heart, they will sing to you about the life you want and the things you desire or feel that you deserve…therefore you must discern.

 It is for you to decide which you will listen to, and because you are human you will vacillate, sometimes you will make the right call, sometimes you will fail. Whichever way you wander, God will forgive you, just as God asks that you forgive those who have harmed you. God will love you and ask you to accept the forgiveness of those you have harmed, ultimately God will ask you to forgive yourself…which may be the hardest thing of all to do.

 Remember:

 God is the creator of the entire universe. All lands belong to God, all seas, all planets, all stars, all galaxies, everything and everyone that is in them…the universe itself is the body of God, and we are all together in it.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today:

 We are called to diligence and mindfulness, to perpetual and continuous watchfulness. This is what it means to be in the way.

 The way of loving service is never ending, but so long as we are engaged in it, we are living in the garden.

 Love is love, hope is hope, and trust is trust…to live out the faith means to actively trust in the goodness, the mercy and the justice of God.

 To live in a state of hope requires that we extend the hope we have for ourselves, for our friends and our families, to the stranger in our midst, to the person who owes us money, to the person to whom you are indebted, even to your enemies.

 To be in love, you must be loving, tend the lamp and trim the wick…keep it lit.

 The way is like a river flowing, never still, flowing to the sea.

  

First Reading – Isaiah 63:16-17& 64:1, 3-8 ©

O That You Would Tear the Heavens Open and Come Down

You, Lord, yourself are our Father, ‘Our Redeemer’ is your ancient name.

Why, Lord, leave us to stray from your ways and harden our hearts against fearing you?

Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance.

Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down!

– at your Presence the mountains would melt.

No ear has heard, no eye has seen any god but you act like this for those who trust him.

You guide those who act with integrity and keep your ways in mind.

You were angry when we were sinners; we had long been rebels against you.

We were all like men unclean, all that integrity of ours like filthy clothing.

We have all withered like leaves and our sins blew us away like the wind.

No one invoked your name or roused himself to catch hold of you.

For you hid your face from us and gave us up to the power of our sins.

And yet, Lord, you are our Father; we the clay, you the potter, we are all the work of your hand.

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 79(80):2-3, 15-16, 18-19 ©

God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

O shepherd of Israel, hear us,

  shine forth from your cherubim throne.

O Lord, rouse up your might,

  O Lord, come to our help.

God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

God of hosts, turn again, we implore,

  look down from heaven and see.

Visit this vine and protect it,

  the vine your right hand has planted.

God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

May your hand be on the man you have chosen,

  the man you have given your strength.

And we shall never forsake you again;

  give us life that we may call upon your name.

God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 ©

We are Waiting for Our Lord Jesus Christ to be Revealed

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send you grace and peace.

I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ. I thank him that you have been enriched in so many ways, especially in your teachers and preachers; the witness to Christ has indeed been strong among you so that you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed; and he will keep you steady and without blame until the last day, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, because God by calling you has joined you to his Son, Jesus Christ; and God is faithful.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Psalm 84:8

Alleluia, alleluia!

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy and give us your saving help.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 13:33 - 37 ©

If He Comes Unexpectedly, He Must Not Find You Asleep

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come. It is like a man travelling abroad: he has gone from home, and left his servants in charge, each with his own task; and he has told the doorkeeper to stay awake. So stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming, evening, midnight, cockcrow, dawn; if he comes unexpectedly, he must not find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake!’

 

The First Sunday of Advent (Year B)