30 November 2025 (Sunday) / 1st Sunday of Advent

30 November 2025 (Sunday)

1st Sunday of Advent.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Isaiah 2: 1-5
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 122: 1-9
Second Reading: Romans 13: 11-14
Alleluia: Psalms 85: 8
Gospel: Matthew 24: 37-44

First Reading : Isaiah 2:1‐5

The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In the days to come the mountain of the Temple of the Lord shall tower above the mountains and be lifted higher than the hills. All the nations will stream to it, peoples without number will come to it; and they will say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths; since the Law will go out from Zion, and the oracle of the Lord from Jerusalem.’ He will wield authority over the nations and adjudicate between many peoples; these will hammer their swords into ploughshares, their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, there will be no more training for war. O House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Responsive Psalm : Psalm 121(122):1‐2,4‐5,6‐9

I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
I rejoiced when I heard them say:
  ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
And now our feet are standing
  within your gates, O Jerusalem.
I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
It is there that the tribes go up,
  the tribes of the Lord.
For Israel’s law it is,
  there to praise the Lord’s name.
There were set the thrones of judgement
  of the house of David.
I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
For the peace of Jerusalem pray:
  ‘Peace be to your homes!
May peace reign in your walls,
  in your palaces, peace!’
I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
For love of my brethren and friends
  I say: ‘Peace upon you!’
For love of the house of the Lord
  I will ask for your good.
I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’

Second Reading : Romans 13:11‐14

You know ‘the time’ has come: you must wake up now: our salvation is even nearer than it was when we were converted. The night is almost over, it will be daylight soon – let us give up all the things we prefer to do under cover of the dark; let us arm ourselves and appear in the light. Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ.

Alleluia: Psalms 85: 8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
8 Show us Lord, your love; and grant us your salvation.
(1. [For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Yahweh, you are gracious to your land, you bring back the captives of Jacob,
2. you take away the guilt of your people, you blot out all their sin.
3. You retract all your anger, you renounce the heat of your fury.
4. Bring us back, God our Saviour, appease your indignation against us!
5. Will you be angry with us for ever? Will you prolong your wrath age after age?
6. Will you not give us life again, for your people to rejoice in you?
7. Show us, Lord, your faithful love, grant us your saving help.
8. I am listening. What is God's message? Yahweh's message is peace for his people, for his faithful, if only they renounce their folly.
9. His saving help is near for those who fear him, his glory will dwell in our land.
10. Faithful Love and Loyalty join together, Saving Justice and Peace embrace.
11. Loyalty will spring up from the earth, and Justice will lean down from heaven.
12. Yahweh will himself give prosperity, and our soil will yield its harvest.
13. Justice will walk before him, treading out a path).
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel : Matthew 24:37‐44

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept all away. It will be like this when the Son of Man comes. Then of two men in the fields one is taken, one left; of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left. ‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’

For our reflection today:

Today Advent begins, the liturgical time which prepares us for Christmas, inviting us to lift our gaze and open our hearts to welcome Jesus. During Advent we do not just live in anticipation of Christmas; we are also called to rekindle the anticipation of the glorious return of Christ — when he will return at the end of time — preparing ourselves, with consistent and courageous choices, for the final encounter with him. We remember Christmas, we await the glorious return of Christ, and also our personal encounter: the day in which the Lord will call. During these four weeks we are called to leave behind a resigned and routine way of life and to go forth, nourishing hope, nourishing dreams for a new future. This is a favourable time to open our hearts, to ask ourselves concrete questions about how and for whom we expend our lives. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 2 December 2018)

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