Happy New Year, everyone!
The Church Year begins this week with the First Sunday of Advent, and we are back to reading cycle A in 2014.
There is a very ancient tradition in the Church of reading the Book of Isaiah during Advent. In antiquity, both Jews and Christians considered the Book of Isaiah to be one extended prophesy of the “age to come,” the “latter days” when the Anointed One (Heb. “Meshiach,” =”Messiah”) would arrive. The First Readings forSunday Mass and for weekday Masses, as well as the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours, are dominated by Isaiah during this liturgical season.
In the Gospel sequence, the First Sunday of Advent focuses on Jesus’ Second Coming, forming a good transition from the month of November with its focus on the Last Things. The Second and Third Sundays of Advent focus on John the Baptist, the fore-runner of Jesus. The Fourth Sunday finally casts its gaze on the events leading directly to Jesus birth.
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