1 December 2025 (Monday) / Monday of the First Week of Advent

1 December 2025 (Monday)

Monday of the First Week of Advent.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Isaiah 4: 2-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 122: 1-9
Alleluia: Psalms 80: 4
Gospel: Matthew 8: 5-11

First Reading: Isaiah 4: 2-6

In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be high, and a great joy to them that shall have escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall be left in Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one that is written in life in Jerusalem. If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every place of mount Sion, and where he is called upon, a cloud by day, and a smoke and the brightness of a flaming fire in the night: for over all the glory shall be a protection. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 122: 1-9

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord. Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

Jerusalem, which is built as a city, which is compact together. For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

The testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord. Because their seats have sat in judgment, seats upon the house of David.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

Pray ye for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem: and abundance for them that love thee. Let peace be in thy strength: and abundance in thy towers.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

For the sake of my brethren, and of my neighbours, I spoke peace of thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I have sought good things for thee.

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

Alleluia: Psalms 80: 4
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
4 Come and save us, LORD our God; let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
(1. [For the choirmaster Tune: 'The decrees are lilies' Of Asaph Psalm] Shepherd of Israel, listen, you who lead Joseph like a flock, enthroned on the winged creatures, shine forth
2. over Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh; rouse your valour and come to our help.
3. God, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.
4. Yahweh, God Sabaoth, how long will you flare up at your people's prayer?
5. You have made tears their food, redoubled tears their drink.
6. You let our neighbours quarrel over us, our enemies mock us.
7. God Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.
8. You brought a vine out of Egypt, to plant it you drove out nations;
9. you cleared a space for it, it took root and filled the whole country.
10. The mountains were covered with its shade, and the cedars of God with its branches,
11. its boughs stretched as far as the sea, its shoots as far as the River.
12. Why have you broken down its fences? Every passer-by plucks its grapes,
13. boars from the forest tear at it, wild beasts feed on it.
14. God Sabaoth, come back, we pray, look down from heaven and see, visit this vine;
15. protect what your own hand has planted.
16. They have thrown it on the fire like dung, the frown of your rebuke will destroy them.
17. May your hand protect those at your side, the child of Adam you have strengthened for yourself!
18. Never again will we turn away from you, give us life and we will call upon your name.
19. God Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe).
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Matthew 8: 5-11

And when he had entered into Capharnaum, there came to him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grieviously tormented. And Jesus saith to him: I will come and heal him. And the centurion making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers; and I say to this, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. And Jesus hearing this, marvelled; and said to them that followed him: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

For our reflection today:

In the passage we have heard, the Lord marvelled at the centurion. He marvelled at his faith. The centurion made a journey to meet the Lord, but he made it in faith. He not only encountered the Lord, but he came to know the joy of being encountered by him. And this is precisely the sort of encounter we desire, the encounter of faith. When we go out to meet the Lord, we in some sense are “masters of the moment”. However, “when we allow ourselves to be encountered by him, he enters into us” and renews us from within. “This is what it means for Christ to come: to renew all things, to renew hearts, souls, lives, hope and the journey”. We are like this centurion on a pilgrimage of faith. To encounter the Lord, and also to allow ourselves to be encountered by him. (Pope Francis, Santa Marta, 2 December 2013)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed  and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)