Churches of the Day

Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent

We should never feel weary, losing trust in the Lord who has promised rest for the weary and overburdened.

Optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto.
(Mary conceived Jesus the Head of the Church and accepted us as her extended family)
C/f short history of today’s saint can be found below today’s Readings and Reflection.     

FIRST READING                  

A reading from the prophet Isaiah  40:25-31
The Lord almighty gives strength to the wearied.

'To whom could you liken me and who could be my equal?' says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look.
Who made these stars if not he who drills them like an army, calling each one by name? So mighty is his power, so great his strength, that not one fails to answer.

How can you say, Jacob, how can you insist, Israel,
'My destiny is hidden from the Lord, my rights are ignored by my God'?
Did you not know? Had you not heard?

The Lord is an everlasting God, he created the boundaries of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming.
He gives strength to the wearied, he strengthens the powerless.
Young men may grow tired and weary, youths may stumble, but those who hope in the Lord renew their strength, they put out wings like eagles. They run and do not grow weary, walk and never tire.

The Word of the Lord            Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm         Ps 102: 1-4, 8. 10. R/v 1
Response                               My soul, give thanks to the Lord.

1. My soul, give thanks to the Lord, all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord and never forget all his blessings.                                  Response

2. It is he who forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with love and compassion.     Response

3. The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
He does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults.           Response

Gospel  Acclamation        Ps 84:8
Alleluia, alleluia!
Behold our Lord will come with power and will enlighten the eyes of his servants.
Alleluia!

Or

Alleluia, alleluia!
Look the Lord will come to save his people. Blessed those ready to meet him.
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you.                                               And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 11:28-30        Glory to you, O Lord
Come to me, all you who labour.

Jesus exclaimed,
'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'

The Gospel of the Lord.            Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Gospel Reflection          Wednesday,                   Second Week of Advent         Matthew 11:28-30

We can all grow tired and weary, especially as we get older. We sense that our physical energy levels are not what they were. We may feel the need for a nap in the afternoon. According to the first reading, even ‘young men may grow tired and weary, youths may stumble’.

The weariness in question there is not so much a physical weariness but a weariness of spirit. We can suffer from a weariness of spirit at any age. We struggle to get up and go, to invest ourselves in the task at hand, to give of ourselves to others. Physically we may be strong, but there is a lethargy about us. It is often part of the human condition. That first reading suggests it is not part of God’s condition, ‘He does not grow tired or weary’. The Lord is always actively engaged with us. He is always coming towards us. We pray the simple prayer during Advent, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’, a prayer that recognizes that the Lord is always on the way towards us. The Lord never retreats into himself in a kind of weariness of spirit. He is always fully alive, vibrant and dynamic.

In the gospel reading, he invites us to come to him in our weariness of spirit and draw life from his presence to us, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest’. The word ‘rest’ suggests not so much inactivity but revival and renewal, as in one of the lines of the Psalm, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’, ‘Near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit’. Each day, in prayer, we can turn to the Lord in our weariness of spirit and open ourselves to his reviving presence. When we turn to the Lord in hopeful trust, the promise at the end of today’s first reading can come to pass for us, ‘Those who hope in the Lord renew their strength; they put out wings like the eagles’.

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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/
The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from  Martin Hogan's  book Reflections on the Weekday Readings : The Word is Near to You, on your lips and in your heart  published by Messenger Publications  c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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Optional Feast of the Day: December 10th; Our Lady of Loreto

Pope Francis approved that the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto should be inscribed in the Roman Calendar for today, and celebrated every year for the celebration of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

Tradition
According to tradition, the Holy House of Loreto was carried by angels from Nazareth to the Italian hillside town of Loreto the night of Dec. 9-10 in 1294 after making a three-year stop in Croatia.

Tradition holds that the small house, made of three stone walls, is the place where Mary was born, where she was visited by an angel and conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and where the Holy Family later lived.(c/f final paragraph on this page)

The decree said the shrine in Loreto “recalls the mystery of the Incarnation” and helps visitors “meditate both on the words of the angel announcing the Good News and on the words of the Virgin in response to the divine call.” And it has been able to “illustrate powerfully the evangelical virtues of the Holy Family,”  Millions of pilgrims flock to Loreto each year to venerate the tiny cottage. It is Italy’s most important and popular Marian shrine. It was one of the shrines St. John Paul II visited the most.

Basilica della Santa Casa (see image above right ) in Loreto is the Marian shrine which enshrines the little house in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have lived. Over the past several centuries, people from all parts of the world have travelled to this shrine to pray and seek Our Lady's help. Thousands of miracles attributed to Our Lady have been recorded at Loreto. Many persons who have been canonized, beatified or made venerable by the Church including many popes have visited the Holy House. St. Therese of Lisieux made a momentous pilgrimage before entering the Carmelites, to which she alludes at length in her autobiography. St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Frances Cabrini, Card.  St John Neumann, and St. Francis de Sales, to name but a few, have visited the Holy House.

History


The tradition and history of the Holy House goes back to Apostolic times. From the earliest days of Christianity, the little house and the grotto which formed one side of the Holy House have been a place of worship and pilgrimage. Shortly after the year 313, Constantine the Great had a large Basilica built over the Holy House of Nazareth. The Holy House and the grotto formed part of the crypt of the new church. About the year 1090, the Saracens invaded the Holy Land, plundering and destroying many of the shrines sacred to Christians. One of these was the Basilica in Nazareth, but the Holy House and grotto in the crypt were left intact.

When St. Francis of Assisi visited the Holy Land (1219-1220) he prayed at the Holy House. Over and over again the Holy House escaped destruction. In 1291 the crusaders were completely driven out of the Holy Land and it was at this point in history that the Holy House disappeared from Palestine and made its appearance in what is now known as present day Croatia, where a most important shrine was erected, Our Lady of Trsat ( in Italian it is pronounced 'Tersátto'.

Custodians of the shrine have said the stones of the house were removed from the Holy Land and carried by ship by a member of the Angeli family. The family name is also the Italian word for “angels,” thus being the probable reason for the more popular notion of winged angels flying the house to Italy.
(Despite the possibility that the house came by way of a ship, Our Lady of Loreto is still the patron saint of aviation and air travel.)

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Memorable Sayings for Today

I believe in a God bigger than my doubts and fears.
...Anonymous

The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen.
G.K.Chesterton

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- 14 December 2025 -

Third Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday! - Rejoicing Sunday!

This week the joy of the kingdom is anticipated. The signs of the kingdom are given to the messengers of John the Baptist, and they are very familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah. 'Patient waiting'  There should be no complaining, no giving up or losing heart. Joy, prayer and thanksgiving should characterise us as a 'waiting' Christian community.

FIRST READING 

A reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah     35:1-6. 10
God himself is coming to save you.

Let the wilderness and the dry-lands exult, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom,
let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil, let it rejoice and sing for joy.

The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon;
they shall see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God.
Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees
and say to all faint hearts,
'Courage! Do not be afraid.
'Look, your God is coming, vengeance is coming,
the retribution of God; he is coming to save you.'

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed, then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy; for those the Lord has ransomed shall return.

They will come to Zion shouting for joy, everlasting joy on their faces; joy and gladness will go with them and sorrow and lament be ended.

The Word of the Lord            Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm         Ps 145: 6-7, 8-9,10 R/v Is35:4
Response                             Come, Lord, and save us
or                                            Alleluia!

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

SECOND READING

A reading from the letter of St James      5:7-10
Do not lose heart: the Lord’s coming will be soon.

Now be patient, brothers, until the Lord's coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains!

You too have to be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord's coming will be soon. Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates. For your example, brothers, in submitting with patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

The Word of the Lord              Thanks be to God

Gospel  Acclamation          Is 61:1
Alleluia,   alleluia!
The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor
Alleluia!

GOSPEL 

The Lord be with you.                                 And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew 11:2-11        Glory to you, O Lord
 Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?

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, the Good News is proclaimed 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       Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

For homily resources for this Sunday's Gospel click here:  https://www.catholicireland.net/sunday-homily/




Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.  http  //dltbooks.com/