Morning Voice

December 15, 2024. Third Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday – C. Readings: Zep 3:14-18a; Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6; Phil 4:4-7; Lk3:10-18. “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel!” (Zep 3:14) “Brothers and sisters: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again:  rejoice!” (Phil 4:4) A Spanish proverb says: “Every season brings its joy.” Another Spanish proverb adds: “Unshared joy is an unlighted candle.” Advent is a time of preparation and commemoration of the three coming of the Lord; the already, the daily, and the yet to come at the end of time. This journey of the Advent requires great hope from us. Thus, the first Advent candle symbolizes. Our Advent expectation calls us also to be instruments of peace; peace with ourselves, peace with others, and peace in our surroundings. Therefore, our second Advent candle, because, the one who is coming is the Prince of Peace. We are today in the Gaudete Sunday, or Sunday of Joy. At his coming, not only will the Lord...

December 8, 2024. Second Sunday of Advent – C. Readings: Bar 5:1-9; Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6; Phil 1:4-6,8-11; Lk 3:1-6. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low…” Luke 3:4s An Ivorian wise man said: “Peace is not a mere word, but a behavior.” A Native American Lakota proverb adds: “True peace between nations will only happen when there is true peace within people's souls.” Peace is a central theme of the Advent. The one who came two thousand years ago, the one who comes into our daily lives, and the one who will come again in glory is the Prince of Peace. He came to set man free from slavery to sin and from every enslavement and dominion. Advent, we insistently said last Sunday, is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. But in that insistence, we noted that it was the time or season of the three comings, the historical, the present, and the Parousia. So, the coming of the...