SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT C Lectionary #6

What is involved in repentance? Sorrow for the sins of the past, certainly, but also hope and trust in God's mercy.

Baruch 5:1-9. This beautiful and hopeful prophetic call from Jeremiah's secretary to Jerusalem is remarkable, given that Jerusalem was a shattered ruin at the time of the prophecy. Yet the prophet saw the ruined city as a queen royally attired by God, a mother watching for the joyful return of her children and moving to meet them in a royal procession for which the way has been carefully cleared and leveled.

Psalm of the Day: Ps (125) 126 . Like last week's psalm, this is another lament—this time a communal lament—but now the lament part is visible in the second half of the psalm. The first part of the psalm, which remembers the return from exile as God's great gift, is a preparation for the petition in the second half that God act now in the same way that God acted in restoring the nation after the exile.

El Señor Ha Estado (López) FYC 265

El Señor Ha Estado (Sosa) FYC 264

God Has Done Great Things for Us (Haugen) GC 124

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Cortez) GP 271/MI-BB/SP3 72

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Gelineau/Proulx) WOR 69, 771/RS 171/GC 123

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Isele) CBW 22

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Manalo) MI-BB/JS 103

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Marchionda) PRM C2

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Roff) PC3 18/SMM5 8

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Smith) GP 272/SP5 63

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Stewart) RS 170/PCY5 6

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Twynham) CCS 2024

Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11. Taken from the opening greeting of the Letter to the Philippians, this address to the community includes Paul's prayer that God will continue to act in the people as God has acted in the past (an echo of the hope in the psalm).

Luke 3:1-6. Luke is careful to set John's ministry in a historical context: All of this happened in real time, not in some mythic place beyond time. The setting begins at its widest expanse, with the Roman Empire , and narrows like a close-up movie shot to the area around Jerusalem . Here we meet John, son of Zechariah (and Jesus' cousin, according to Luke), who is preaching repentance as a way to prepare for the coming of the Lord God.

Songs for the Liturgy

*A Voice Cries Out (G) RS 485/GP 294/JS 313/BB

*Advent Antiphon (G) CBW 301

*Await the Lord with Hope (G) BB

Be Strong! (1) LMGM 237

Bread of Life (Farrell) B Advent/Christmas setting (1) BB/JS 819

Christ Is Coming: Prepare the Way (G) LMGM 10

Christ's Peace (1,2) JS 844

*City of God , Jerusalem (1) WOR 362/RS 486

*Clear the Voice (G) JS 317

Come, Light of the World (1) WC 442/WS 336

*Comfort, Comfort, O My People (1,G) WOR 370/JS 327/BB/WC 458/RS 488/GC 326

Comfort My People (1,G) BB

*Every Valley (G) GP 297/CBW 308/BB/JS 326

Great Is the Lord (1) GC 684

*I Will Sing, I Will Sing, v 4 (2) GC 543

*Let the Valleys Be Raised (1,G) GP 310/BB

*Like a Shepherd, v 1 (G) GP 708/CBW 490/JS 648/GC 325/MI-BB

Maranatha (1) GP 295/BB

Now Is the Time Approaching (2) WC 456

O How I Long to See (2) GP 306

*On Jordan 's Bank (G) WOR 356/CBW 351/LMGM 8/GC 321, 22/JS 315/BB/WC 452/RS 490/GP 296/PMB 190/WS 349

People, Look East (1,G) WOR 359/JS 329/BB/WC 461/RS 482/GC 318/GP 300/PMB 188/WS 343

*Prepare the Way of the Lord (1,G) WOR 369/LMGM 2/RS 491/GC 336/CBW 317

*Ready the Way (G) BB/JS 323

Rise Up, Jerusalem (1,G) GP 210

*The Harvest of Justice (2) GC 711/WC 930

The Voice of God Goes Out (1,2) WOR 358/CBW 433

Wait for the Lord (2) RS 484/GC 332/CBW 319

Walk in the Reign (1) GC 319

When He Comes (1) WC 447/PMB 196/WS 342

When the King Shall Come Again (1) WOR 355/RS 487/GC 327/JS 318

*Wild and Lone the Prophet = s Voice (G) HG 18