FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT A Lectionary #1

The readings reflect the focus that ends each liturgical year and begins each new one: The Christian sense of history includes a belief that time will end not only for each of us but for the whole of creation and that there will be justice (and, we pray, mercy) for all at that time.

Music Suggestions

Choral Anthems

Music Suggestions

Isaiah 2:1-5. This vision of the coming messianic age has a hopeful focus, in which the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is seen to be the center that draws the nations together and the place from which moral teaching is sent into the whole world. This hopeful, peaceful vision is set in contrast to the dark prediction of the Day of the Lord as a day of judgment in today’s Gospel.

Psalm of the Day: Ps (121) 122
One of the "Songs of Ascent" sung by pilgrims as they approached Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. This psalm reflects an idealized picture of Jerusalem as the place of political as well as religious unity. Used by Christians, it sings of our hope for the "new" Jerusalem.

Con Qué Alegría/Let Us Go Rejoicing (Cortés)   FYC 263/JS 102
Con Qué Alegría/Let Us Go Rejoicing (Cortés)   JS 102
I Rejoiced When I Heard Them Say (Batastini/Black)   CBW 17
I Rejoiced When I Heard Them Say (Batastini/Gelineau)  WOR 766/RS 165
I Rejoiced When I Heard Them Say (Dean)   GP 268
I Rejoiced When I Heard Them Say (Kreutz)  PSS 64
I Rejoiced When I Heard Them Say (Proulx) RS 851
I Rejoiced When I Heard Them Say (Walker)   GP 269/MI‑BB
I Rejoiced When I Heard Them Say (Warner)   PMB 170/WC 434/WS
I Was Glad (Haas)  GC 121/RS 166
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Alstott)   BB
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Batastini/Gelineau)   LPGG 766
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Guimont)   LPMG 1
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Harbor)  LMGM 542
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Haugen)  PCY1 83
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Hurd)   JS 101/MI-BB
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Joncas)  GC 120/GC2 68/RS 167
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Roberts)  LMGM 543
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Schaefer)  PRM A1/PMB 554
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Schalk)  SO 71
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Schiavone)   LP 8/JS 878
Let Us Go Rejoicing (Young/Black)  CBW 114
Qué Alegría Cuando Me Dijeron (Manzano)  GP 270
Qué Alegría/Let Us Go Rejoicing (Krisman)   SS

Romans 13:11-14. Paul, writing from an early Christian perspective which expected the imminent return of the risen Lord, calls the people to a moral life, using the traditional morality of the “two ways”—a right way and a wrong way, the way of light and the way of darkness.

Matthew 24:37-44. In this apocalyptic passage, Jesus emphasizes the tradition that the messianic “Son of Man” will arrive to herald the Day of the Lord. In the prophets, this day could be either a hopeful time (see the Isaiah reading) or a time to dread—a time of terrible, swift judgment. Jesus warns of judgment, though he does not offer any reason why “one will be taken and one will be left.” His message is simply the need to be prepared: “At an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

Songs for the Liturgy
A Season of Light (1)  WC 466/WS
Advent Gathering (2)  GC 324/RS 492
Awake, Awake, Fling Off the Night (G)  CBW 304
Awake, O Sleeper (2)  GC 803/RS 650, 729
City of God, Jerusalem (1,Ps)  WOR 362/RS 486
Come, Lord, and Tarry Not (G)  WOR 365/LMGM 11
Come, Lord Jesus (1)   BB
Come to Set Us Free (1)  GP 298
Creator Alme Siderum, Latin/English (G)  WOR 368/BB/LMGM 7/GC 337/CBW 307/WC 472/JS 325/RS 483/GP 305/PMB 187/WS
Hills of the North, Rejoice (G)  WOR 365
In the Day of the Lord (1) JS 685/GP 722/MI-BB
*Let Us Go Rejoicing (Ps)   JS 791
Levanto Mi Alma (Peña)  GC 37
Maranatha (1,2,G)  BB/GP 295
My Lord! What a Morning (G)  LMGM 9
Now Is the Time Approaching (1)  WC 471
Now the Day of the Lord Is at Hand (2,G)  WOR 687
O Day of Peace (1,Ps)   WOR 654/PMB 460
O, How I Long to See (1,Ps)   GP 306
On That Holy Mountain (1,Ps)   WC 464/PMB 194/WS
People, Look East (2)  WOR 359/JS 329/BB/WC 456/RS 482/GC 318/GP 300/PMB 188/WS
Proclaim the Joyful Message (1)  WC 476/PMB 197/WS
Ps 25: To You, O Lord (E,G) 
Save Us, O Lord (G)  JS 555/GP 301/MI‑BB
Soon and Very Soon (1,G)  LMGM 4/GC 770/WC 941/JS 683/MI‑BB/RS 870/GP 723/PMB 513/WS
The Advent of Our God (G)  BB/CBW 315/WC 470/JS 322/PMB 191
The Day Is Near (1)  GC 768
The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns (2,G)  WOR 373/BB/GP 307/GC 320/WC 457, 468/JS 319/RS 497/PMB 186/WS
There Is a River (1,G)   GP 718/JS 656
*To You, O Lord (E)   BFW 1/IH 1
Wait for the Lord (G)  GC 332/CBW 319/RS 484
Wake, Awake (G)  WOR 371/BB/GC 335/WC 458/JS 332/RS 489/PMB 185
Waken, O Sleeper (G)   HG 89
When He Comes (1,G)  PMB 196
When the King Shall Come Again (1)  WOR 355/GC 327/RS 487/JS 318
When the Lord in Glory Comes (1,G)  RS 868/GC 765

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Choral Anthems

* Out of Print

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