DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

DECEMBER 15, 2023

FRIDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

FIRST READING

ISAIAH 48:17-19

17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. 18 O that you had harkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; 19 your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.

The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALMS 1:1-4, 6

Response: Those who follow thee, Lord, will have the light of life.

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

R. Those who follow thee, Lord, will have the light of life.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water,
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

R. Those who follow thee, Lord, will have the light of life.

The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

GOSPEL

The Lord will lead you in the way you should go

MATTHEW 11:16-19

16 "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, 17 We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.' 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon'; 19 the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, `Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds."

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS

The river of forgiveness washes us clean, by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.

"This water is good, then. I mean here the grace of the Spirit. Who will give this Fountain to my heart? Let it spring up in me, let that which gives eternal life flow on me. Let that Fountain overflow on us and not flow away. For Wisdom says, 'Drink water out of your own vessels and from the fountains of your own wells, and let [not] your waters flow abroad in your streets' (Proverbs 5:15-16). How shall I keep this water so that it does not seep out or glide away? How shall I preserve my vessel, lest any crack of sin penetrating it should let the water of eternal life exude? Teach us, Lord Jesus, teach us as you taught your apostles, saying, 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where rust and moth destroy and where thieves break through and steal (Matthew 6:19)...
"If you seek Jesus, forsake the broken cisterns, for Christ did not make it his custom to sit by a pool but by a well. There that Samaritan woman (John 4:6) found him, she who believed, she who wished to draw water. Although you ought to have come in early morning, nevertheless if you come later, even at the sixth hour, you will find Jesus wearied with his journey. He is weary, but it is because of you, because he has long looked for you, your unbelief has long wearied him. Yet he is not offended if you only come now. He asks to drink who is about to give. But he drinks not the water of a stream flowing by, but your salvation. He drinks your good dispositions. He drinks the cup, that is, the passion that atoned for your sins, that you, drinking of his sacred blood, might quench the thirst of this world." 

(excerpt from ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 1.16.182-84)
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.