4 December 2025 (Thursday) / Thursday of the 1st week of Advent or Saint John Damascene, Priest, Doctor / Thursday of the First Week of Advent / Advent Weekday/ Saint John of Damascus, Priest, Religious, Doctor

4 December 2025 (Thursday)

Thursday of the 1st week of Advent or Saint John Damascene, Priest, Doctor.

Thursday of the First Week of Advent.

Advent Weekday/ Saint John of Damascus, Priest, Religious, Doctor.

First Reading: Isaiah 26: 1-6
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 118: 1 and 8-9, 19-21, 25-27
Alleluia: Isaiah 55: 6
Gospel: Matthew 7: 21, 24-27

First Reading : Isaiah 26:1‐6

That day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; to guard us he has set wall and rampart about us. Open the gates Let the upright nation come in, she, the faithful one whose mind is steadfast, who keeps the peace, because she trusts in you. Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord is the everlasting Rock; he has brought low those who lived high up in the steep citadel; he brings it down, brings it down to the ground, flings it down in the dust: the feet of the lowly, the footsteps of the poor trample on it.

Responsive Psalm : Psalm 117(118):1,8‐9,19‐21,25‐27

Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes.
or
Alleluia.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in men; it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes.
or
Alleluia.

Open to me the gates of holiness: I will enter and give thanks. This is the Lord’s own gate where the just may enter. I will thank you for you have answered and you are my saviour.

Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes.
or
Alleluia.

O Lord, grant us salvation; O Lord, grant success. Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes. We bless you from the house of the Lord; the Lord God is our light.

Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes.
or
Alleluia.

Alleluia: Isaiah 55: 6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call him while he is near.
(1. Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come! Buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money, free!
2. Why spend money on what cannot nourish and your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.
3. Pay attention, come to me; listen, and you will live. I shall make an everlasting covenant with you in fulfilment of the favours promised to David.
4. Look, I have made him a witness to peoples, a leader and lawgiver to peoples.
5. Look, you will summon a nation unknown to you, a nation unknown to you will hurry to you for the sake of Yahweh your God, because the Holy One of Israel has glorified you.
6. Seek out Yahweh while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near.
7. Let the wicked abandon his way and the evil one his thoughts. Let him turn back to Yahweh who will take pity on him, to our God, for he is rich in forgiveness;
8. for my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares Yahweh.
9. For the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.
10. For, as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilising it and making it germinate to provide seed for the sower and food to eat,
11. so it is with the word that goes from my mouth: it will not return to me unfulfilled or before having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do.
12. Yes, you will go out with joy and be led away in safety. Mountains and hills will break into joyful cries before you and all the trees of the countryside clap their hands.
13. Cypress will grow instead of thorns, myrtle instead of nettles. And this will be fame for Yahweh, an eternal monument never to be effaced).
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel : Matthew 7:21,24‐27

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘It is not those who say to me, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock. But everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had!’

For our reflection today:

Jesus is the living Word of God. When he taught, people recognized in his words the divine authority itself and they felt the Lord’s closeness, his merciful love, and praised God. In every epoch and in every place those who have the grace of knowing God, especially through reading the holy Gospel, are fascinated by him. They recognize that in his preaching, in his actions and in his Person, he reveals the true face of God to us and at the same time reveals us to ourselves. This gives us the joy of being children of the Father who is in Heaven, and points out to us the solid foundation on which to build our life. Yet human beings often do not build their action and life on this identity; they prefer the sands of ideology, power, success and money, believing they will find in these things stability and the answer to the irrepressible demand for happiness and fullness that they carry in their soul. And as for us, on what do we wish to build our life? Who can truly respond to the restlessness of the human heart? Christ is the rock of our life! He is the eternal and definitive Word who overcomes every kind of adversity, difficulty or hardship (cf. Verbum Domini, n. 10). (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, 6 March 2011)

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