Advent Daily Dose - 3rd Thursday

We pray + in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (7:24-30).

When the messengers of John the Baptist had left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. “What did you go out to the desert to see – a reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one whom Scripture says: Behold I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.

I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.” (All the people who listened, including the tax collectors, who were baptized with the baptism of John, acknowledged the righteousness of God; but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.)

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Reflection: “We are no longer then in the region of shadows: we have the true Savior set before us, the true reward, and the true means of spiritual renewal. We know the true state of the soul by nature and by grace, the evil of sin, the consequences of sinning, the way of pleasing God, and the motives to act upon. God has revealed himself clearly to us… He calls upon us in turn to ‘walk in the light as He is in the light’… the promise is expressly made to us that… ‘our eyes shall see the King in His beauty; we shall behold the land that is very far off’” (Blessed John Henry Newman, Cardinal Archbishop of Birmingham, England, who died in 1890).

We pray: Unworthy servants that we are, O Lord, grieved by the guilt of our deeds, we pray that you may gladden us by the saving advent of your Only Begotten Son. We ask this through Him, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us!

+In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.