Readings
Year A
- Isaiah 7:10-16
- Romans 1:1-7
- Matthew 1:18-25
- Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Year B
- 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
- Romans 16:25-27
- Luke 1:26-38
- Canticle 3 or Canticle 15 or Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Year C
- Micah 5:2-5a
- Hebrews 10:5-10
- Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)
- Canticle 15 (or 3) or Psalm 80:1-7
Commentary
On the Collect of the Day
The collect, provided for use in the season when the first advent is recalled and the second anticipated, reminds us of our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem (Lk. 19:44), ” you did not know the time of your visitation,” and prays that our consciences may be purified by His “daily visitation.” It prays that, in contrast to His first advent when there was no room for Him in the inn, “he may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.” This collect is especially in accord with the Annunciation theme of the lections for the day.
Hatchett, Marion J. Commentary on the American Prayer Book. Seabury Press, 1981, pp. 167.
Homiletic Directory
By the Fourth Sunday of Advent Christmas is very near. The mood of the liturgy shifts from the intense calls to conversion to a focus on the events immediately surrounding the birth of Jesus, a shift highlighted in the second preface for the Advent season. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive,” reads the title of the first reading in Year A. And indeed, all the readings – from the prophets, from the Apostles, from the Gospels – cluster around the mystery announced to Mary by the angel Gabriel.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
- CCC 496-507, 495: Mary’s virginal motherhood
- CCC 437, 456, 484-486, 721-726: Mary the Mother of Christ by the Holy Spirit
- CCC 1846: Jesus as Savior revealed to Joseph
- CCC 445, 648, 695: Christ the Son of God in his Resurrection
- CCC 143-149, 494, 2087: the “obedience of faith”
- CCC 484-494: the Annunciation
- CCC 439, 496, 559, 2616: Jesus is the Son of David
- CCC 148, 495, 717, 2676: the Visitation
- CCC 462, 606-607, 2568, 2824: the Son becomes incarnate to do the Father’s will