FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT - 2025

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son
and they will call him Emmanuel,
a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’. MT 1:23

ISAIAH 7:10-14

My Soul's Beloved,

Even if we are stupid and pompous like Ahaz, who refuses to ask for a sign that God Himself desires to give him, signs of Your goodness, Your Presence, and Your amazing love are everywhere for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. We look up at a perfect blue sky during the day, the night sky filled with stars and the moon, and enjoy a perfect sunrise and sunset. Trees laden with flowers and fruit. All kinds of insects and birds in gardens are rampant with the most glorious flowers in summer, while the air is redolent with their fragrance. The laughter of children at play, the gurgle of a baby, or an infant smiling in its sleep. A woman with a child in her womb, and the father protectively watching over her with great tenderness. In all of these and so many more amazing ways, we see signs of God imprinted in every created thing.

But the greatest of all signs, my Lord, and my God, is Mary's fiat and, instantly, the Holy Spirit comes upon her, the power of the Most High overshadows this new Ark of the Covenant, and the Son of God becomes incarnate in her womb. And the sole purpose of the glorious descent of heaven into the womb of a Virgin and through her to the world was to ensure that God's people could regain through Your passion, death, and glorious resurrection, the Paradise that our first parents lost and which You, Beloved, regained for us. Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thank You, Mama Mary and St. Joseph.

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’

Then Isaiah said:
‘Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men
without trying the patience of my God, too?
The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel,
a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’

PSALM 23(24):1-6

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.

Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things.

He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

ROMANS 1:1-7

My Soul's Beloved,

Were it not for the Apostles and St. Paul, and every one of the missionaries who left the comfort of their homes, their families, their countries, because the zeal of the Gospel impelled them to, where would we be? Most certainly, we would be pagans worshipping idols and false gods and living our lives in abject spiritual poverty and the real possibility of being separated from You eternally.

We thank God for St. Paul, the Apostles, the Gospel writers, Scripture writers, and scholars, those who dedicated their whole lives to being steeped in God's Word. They, inspired by the Holy Spirit, received the gifts of knowledge and understanding and were able to break that Word to us so we too can, through their life's study, receive, understand, and become aware of the hidden treasures and the great promises contained in them. 

The more we ponder the Word of God, the more we are able to see, touch, and experience You, the Incarnate Word of the Father, the Son of God made flesh, and descendant of David through St. Joseph, Your foster father. The Old Testament becomes alive when we see how the New is hidden in the Old and the Old comes alive in light of the New.

Thank You, Lord, for all those whose life's work is to study Scripture and to give to us the fruit of their labor so we too can grow in faith, in hope, and above all in love.

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus who has been called to be an apostle, and specially chosen to preach the Good News that God promised long ago through his prophets in the scriptures.
This news is about the Son of God who, according to the human nature he took was a descendant of David: it is about Jesus Christ our Lord who, in the order of the spirit, the spirit of holiness that was in him, was proclaimed Son of God in all his power through his resurrection from the dead. Through him we received grace and our apostolic mission to preach the obedience of faith to all pagan nations in honour of his name. You are one of these nations, and by his call belong to Jesus Christ. To you all, then, who are God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints, may God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send grace and peace.

MATTHEW 1:18-24

My Soul's Beloved, 

The words with which St. Matthew gives us an account of all that occurred in this most turbulent time in the lives of Mary and Joseph hardly give us any real inkling of the emotions they actually experienced during this most troubling time, at least for St. Joseph. Knowing the ancient prophecies of the prophet Isaiah well, and living at a time when the Messiah was expected to arrive, every virgin would at some time wonder if she was the chosen one to conceive and give birth to him. 

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son
and they will call him Emmanuel.

While Mary, too, knew prophecies, she was too humble to consider herself worthy of being the one chosen by God. However, when the Angel made it known to her that she was, in fact, the one, she did as she always had done, since her response to God her whole life, from her earliest years, was, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

St. Joseph, once it was made known to him by the Angel that he was indeed the man chosen by God to be the foster father of His only Son, and the most chaste spouse of the fairest of all God's creatures, he too did as he had done all his life. He obeyed,  did just as God asked, and took his wife, Mary, to his home.

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son
and they will call him Emmanuel,
a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.