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

1 December 2025 (Monday)

Monday of the 1st week of Advent.

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

That day, the branch of the Lord shall be beauty and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be the pride and adornment of Israel’s survivors. Those who are left of Zion and remain of Jerusalem shall be called holy and those left in Jerusalem, noted down for survival. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughter of Zion and cleansed Jerusalem of the blood shed in her with the blast of judgement and the blast of destruction, the Lord will come and rest on the whole stretch of Mount Zion and on those who are gathered there, a cloud by day, and smoke, and by night the brightness of a flaring fire. For, over all, the glory of the Lord will be a canopy and a tent to give shade by day from the heat, refuge and shelter from the storm and the rain.

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.’

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

When Jesus went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’ ‘I will come myself and cure him’ said Jesus. The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast 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)