Friends, Happy New Year’s Day! We come today to the beginning of a liturgical year—the first Sunday of Advent. There is a sort of a permanent Advent quality, a vigil quality, to the Christian life. We are waiting, watching; we want something we don’t fully have. And as we prepare for the coming of the Lord, our Advent challenge is this: What is our “highest mountain”? Where do we offer worship? If it is not the mountain of the Lord—if we have fallen into a spiritual sleep—now is the time to wake up and stay awake, to get our lives in order, to stop making excuses.

Mass Readings

Reading 1 – Is 2:1-5
Psalm – Ps 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Reading 2 – Rom 13:11-14
Gospel – Mt 24:37-44