Planning - First Sunday of Advent Year B through Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (6OT)

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First Sunday of Advent – Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Sunday of Advent (December 3, 2023)

Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2023)

Second Sunday of Advent (December 10, 2023)

Third Sunday of Advent (December 17, 2023)

Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 24, 2023)

Christmas (December 25, 2023)

Holy Family (December 31, 2023)

Epiphany (January 7, 2024)

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 14, 2024)

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 21, 2024)

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 28, 2024)

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Feburary 4, 2024)

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 11, 2024)

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December 3 /First Sunday of Advent

THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER OF MARK’S GOSPEL is a strange place to begin Advent. Today’s passage comes right before Jesus’s passion, and the marking of the nightwatch hours foreshadows what comes next: evening when Jesus foretells his betrayal; midnight when he finds his disciples asleep; Peter’s denial at cockcrow; and Jesus’s arrest at morn. Earlier in the same chapter, Jesus notes the grand buildings around the temple and remarks that a sign of the end will be their dismantling, stone by stone.

Hour by hour and brick by brick—isn’t that often how we create situations we don’t want to be in? Not by one momentous event or calamitous blow but by a series of missed opportunities,

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micro-aggressions, and small acts of indifference and inattention. A string of moments like these that go unnoticed can destroy a life, a relationship, a community at any given hour. Likewise, staying awake and watching, minute by minute, for every opportunity to do Christ’s work can only lead, step by step, to the peace of God’s reign whenever and wherever it appears. Perhaps instead of insulating ourselves with an undisturbed quiet in hushed tones and candlelit spaces, we would better follow the Gospel this Advent if we turned on all the lights, blared trumpets, and shook one another awake: Be watchful! Be alert! Don’t be caught sleeping! Watch! —DM

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

Advent Begins in the Darkness of Night (rescov)

Text: David Bjorlin / Music: Benjamin Brody

Advent Wreath Hymn (splendid glory bright)

Text: Alan J. Hommerding / Music: Luke D. Rosen

Advent Wreath Hymn (your church awaits)

Text: Alan J. Hommerding / Music: Swee Hong Lim

D-1010101

D-00643339

D-00643340

Gospel Responses for Advent B (merton)

Text: Delores Dufner, OSB

In Ruins Where We Sit and Weep (in nominee dei)

Text: David Bjorlin / Music: Sally Ann Morris

D-619223

D-U01088

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

1-800-442-1358

December 8 /Immaculate Conception

HOW BEAUTIFUL THAT WE HAVE SO many images of Mary, the mother of Jesus! How wonderful that in every nation, language, and culture where the good news has been heard, we can call upon her, our mother, by her many names.

This week, we call upon Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and upon Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Each feast day is unique in its focus and feel, and the respective devotions familiar within each community should be honored. On these days, we highlight cherished images, whether the fair-skinned Madonna robed in pale blue and white or the brown Virgen wrapped in rose and a mantle of stars. But by whatever name

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we call her or way we imagine her, let us remember a few things about this singular person.

She was not blond and blue-eyed, neither speaking English nor praying the rosary. She was not made in our image but in God’s alone, who made her to be a first-century Jew, practicing her Jewish faith and handing it on to her Jewish child. She saw that child arrested, wrongly accused, and executed by the state, and she could not stop it. But as her child was dying, she was given to us all to be our mother in faith that we might know and believe that everyone belongs in the household of God.

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

Canticle of the Turning: My Soul Cries Out (star of the county down)

Text and Arr. Rory Cooney

My Heart Rejoices in My God (rejoicing heart)

Text: Delores Dufner, OSB / Music: Randall Sensmeier

My Heart Rejoices in Our God! (how can i keep from singing)

Text: Chris Shelton / Arr. John L. Bell

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D-1029913

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My Heart Sings Out with Joyful Praise (ellacombe)

Text: Ruth Duck

My Soul Gives Glory to My God (magnificat)

Text: Mary Louise Bringle / Music: Michael Joncas

D-383327

D-686128

O Magnify the Lord with Me (god rest you merry) D-U00623

Text: Chris Shelton

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

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December 10/Second Sunday of Advent

BY TRADITION, THE OPENING LINES OF the Gospels correspond to their evangelist’s symbolic creature: Matthew is a winged human; Luke a winged bull; John an eagle. And today’s Gospel passage shows why Mark is a winged lion.

In the desert, John the Baptist roars: “Prepare the way of the Lord!” There are no long-winded genealogies, angelic messengers, or poetic prologues opening Mark’s Gospel. Just a battle cry: “Make straight his paths!” (In his commentary on Mark, biblical scholar Eugene Boring says that the word gospel in a Hellenistic context could mean good news “from the battlefield.”) Mark doesn’t waste any time when it comes to proclaiming the

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message. Get ready!

The rush, however, is not because the Gospel is a demand or a threat. It is simply the truth of God who is already here, whose promises are happening now. The Gospel is not “get on board or else.” Rather, it is the insistence of God’s love that will not stop.

The urgency to respond to the Gospel cannot be fueled by fear for ourselves or imposed upon others. Yes, God will not delay, but God is eternally patient, seeking us in the wilderness where we hide our true selves. The good news is that our lionhearted God will always come looking for us, crying out to us that we may be found. —DM

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Congregational

Hymn and Song Selections from

A Morning Star Draws Near (morning song)

Text: Mary Louise Bringle

When Stars Fall Down (morning song)

Text: Adam M. L. Tice / Arr. Richard Proulx

D-686101

D-808947

Your Patience, Living God, Is Great (allein gott in der höh)

Text: David Gambrell

D-897350

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

1-800-442-1358

December 17 /Third Sunday of Advent

TELL SOMEONE TO “JUST BE HAPPY,” and you often get a cheesy, fake grin in return. The Third Sunday of Advent commands us, “Rejoice!” Unless we go deeper into why we should “rejoice always,” we just might respond with a saccharine simper. The Advent and Christmas seasons are sentimental enough.

To have a more thoughtful, less temperamental faith, we should ask, why rejoice? Today’s responsorial psalm taken from the Magnificat in Luke’s Gospel gives us a reason. Mary rejoices because God has looked upon his lowly servant and shown mercy. God has filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty.

Mary’s joy doesn’t depend on what God will do for her in

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the future or even on what God is doing for her now. Her joy is grounded on what God has done in the past for those in need. When Mary remembers these things, she can trust that God will do those things again. Therefore, she can live in constant joy no matter what.

John the Baptist’s reason to baptize and Mary’s cause for rejoicing both come from their faith in a God who has always been faithful. Like them, we live in a time between what God has done and what our faith tells us God will do again. Advent faith calls us to remember God’s promises. In that memory, we can always rejoice. —DM

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

Text: David

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

December 24 /Fourth Sunday of Advent

NO ONE ELSE IN THE COURSE of history other than Mary of Nazareth has ever or will ever give birth to Jesus, the Son of God. No one else will give their own body to be the first home for Christ. And no one else will give her own self as food to feed the infant body of the one who will feed us all. In this, Mary is a singular disciple among all disciples.

Still, even though her role is unique, we can share in and follow her example of the ordinary ways she gave herself completely over to God’s desire to be close to humankind in Jesus.

Like her, every disciple must be the “ark of God,” made not of cedar or stone but of the human heart, open and wide enough

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for God to dwell in and be found.

Like her, every disciple must be ready to listen for God’s disruptive message delivered by unannounced messengers, unscheduled detours, and unbearable, unbelievable news.

With Mary of Luke’s Gospel, every disciple must be courageous enough to speak up, question, and search for understanding, and humble enough to believe in God’s favor. For fear of the unknown and of our own inadequacy keeps us from doing what we can and saying yes to God, for whom nothing is impossible. —DM

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

Longest Night:

In the Winter’s Growing Darkness (growing darkness) D-U01463

Text: Adam M. L. Tice / Music: Benjamin Brody

Light Is Kindled in the Darkness (mackillop) D-U00881

Text: David Bjorlin / Music: Kate Williams

This is Our Longest Night (longest night) D-U00616

Text: Mary Louise Bringle / Music: Sally Ann Morris

Advent 4B:

A Word Went Out to Mary (es ist ein’ ros’ entsprungen) D-U01489

Text: Hannah C. Brown

Weary, the People of Earth (star in the east) D-800341

Text: Adam M. L. Tice / Arr. Alice Parker

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

Blest Are the Innocents (innocents)

Text: Sylvia G. Dunstan / Music: Benjamin Brody

Child in a Manger, the Humblest of Tables (church lady)

Text: Jacque B. Jones / Music: Benjamin Brody

Christ Is Born! Now All the Angels (thirds)

Text: Sylvia G. Dunstan / Music: Sally Ann Morris

Like a Whisper in the Heart (whisper dance)

Text: Sylvia G. Dunstan / Music: Sally Ann Morris

Shepherds and Angels (sutter buttes)

Daniel Charles Damon

Will the Angels Sing This Year (troeger)

Text: Thomas H. Troeger / Music: Mark A. Miller

VIGIL [13]

Isaiah 62:1–5

Psalm 89:4–5, 16–17, 27, 29 (Rx 2a)

Acts 13:16–17, 22–25

Matthew 1:1–25 or Matthew 1:18–25

NIGHT [14]

Isaiah 9:1–6

Psalm 96: 1–2, 2–3, 11–12, 13 (Rx Luke 2:11)

Titus 2:11–14

Luke 2:1–14

DAWN [15]

Isaiah 62:11–12

Psalm 97: 1, 6, 11–12

Titus 3:4–7

Luke 2:15–20

DAY [16]

Isaiah 52: 7–10

Psalm 98:1, 2–3, 3–4, 5–6 (Rx 3c)

Hebrews 1:1–6

John 1:1–18 or John 1:1–5, 9–14

December 31 /Holy Family

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Congregational Hymn and Song Selections from

Count the Stars If You Are Able (joyous light) D-U00615

Text: Delores Dufner, OSB / Music: Marty Haugen

Now, O Lord, Dismiss Your Servants (o sanctissima; nunc dimittis) D-U01518

Text: Sylvia G. Dunstan / Music: Randall Sensmeier

O Joseph, Awaken, Let Go of Your Fear (garceau)

Text: Chris Shelton / Music: Bex Gaunt

Saint Joseph, Jesus’ Guardian (mozart) D-U00497

Text: Delores Dufner, OSB

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

January 7 /Epiphany

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/ Music: Benjamin Brody

Unbound makes thousands of hymns previously only available in text and tune collections available for individual download as a PDF with full accompaniment included. Visit giamusic.com/unbound

January 14 /Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

WHEN JESUS ASKS JOHN’S DISCIPLES, “WHAT are you looking for?” I’ve always been baffled by their non-sequitur response, “Where are you staying?” But the term “rabbi” is the bridge, connecting the two questions together to show the meaning of the disciples’ unusual answer.

John’s disciples were looking for a teacher, but not just any teacher. The Baptist had taught them to look for the one greater than he, and twice already in this chapter John calls Jesus the “Lamb of God” (verses 29 and 36).

An important theme in John’s Gospel is Jesus’s identity. Here, John the Baptist testifies that Jesus is both teacher and Lamb of

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God. This rabbi will teach not only with words but with actions. He will speak with authority and, like a lamb, will “open not his mouth” as he is led to slaughter. The Word made Flesh will become the flesh of our Passover Lamb whose blood will mark us as God’s own.

Even more telling, however, is Jesus’s response: “Come and see.” Jesus will teach by inviting disciples to actively participate in life with him on the way to the cross. His classroom will be at dining tables and weddings, at wells and graves, and his hands-on lessons will need to be practiced more than memorized. As we call others to discipleship, let us teach as Jesus taught.

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READINGS [65]

January 21 /Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

MOST HOMILISTS PREACH ABOUT BECOMING “FISHERS of men” by either focusing on vocations to the priesthood or rippling out the call to discipleship to be an invitation for all who have heard the Gospel. Either way, being caught in Christianity’s net was a good thing.

However, in his commentary on today’s Gospel passage, New Testament scholar Osvaldo Vena notes the obvious: “Fish, when taken out of water, die!” (workingpreacher.org). Vena recalls the Christian missionaries of his childhood home in Argentina who recast that undesirable consequence as dying to the world for new life in Christ. But he knew he had to wade deeper. Enter activist theologian Ched Myers, who highlights how

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the great prophets of the Old Testament, Jeremiah, Amos, and Ezekiel, used the same metaphor to describe how God fishes out the unjust and casts judgment upon the cold-blooded rich and powerful (see Jer 16:16, Am 4:2, Ez 29:4). Vena quotes Myers, who says, “Jesus is inviting common folk to join him in his struggle to overturn the existing order of power and privilege” (Binding the Strong Man, p. 132).

What if Jesus’s call to his first disciples and to us was less about how many people we can reel in while lamenting those that got away and more about doing his mission of transforming the world into a place where all can thrive? —DM

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January 28 /Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

INAUGURATING HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY, JESUS PROCLAIMED this message: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). Then he enlists others to participate in this mission with him. And today and the next two Sundays, we will see what that kingdom looks like. For Jesus, it starts with freedom and healing.

In an interview at the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis said:

It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal

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the wounds, heal the wounds. . . . And you have to start from the ground up. (“A Big Heart Open to God,” 2013)

The pope asks us to follow Jesus’s example and start not with abstract ideas or theological treatises but with people’s wounds. If we want to preach the good news so that people believe it, are astonished by it, and find hope in it, we have to make sure it sounds like good news!

Jesus taught with authority because he freed people from their suffering. What is our world suffering from today? What is our society possessed by? How will we name that and free ourselves and others so the Gospel can be heard? —DM

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February 4 /Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

IF YOU’RE TEMPTED TO MAKE ANY mother-in-law jokes today, restrain yourself. The subject of Jesus’s first healing miracle in Mark’s Gospel—like all women in the Gospels—deserves more respect and serious reflection. Recall that in last week’s passage, Jesus exorcised a man possessed, and now in today’s passage he heals Simon’s unnamed mother-in-law. This pair of exorcism and healing scenes is a reflection of a disciple’s journey of faith and a precursor of the promise and responsibility all Christ’s followers are given.

In a few weeks, catechumens who have been chosen for initiation at the next Easter Vigil will celebrate three Scrutinies, which, at their core, are minor exorcisms and prayers of healing.

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Whether as infants or adult catechumens, all who are baptized have already experienced Jesus’s freedom and healing in the church’s prayers preparing them for initiation.

To heal her, Jesus took her hand “and helped her up” (Mk 1:31). Mark uses the Greek egeirein, which means “to raise” and is related to other passages referring to resurrection from the dead. Having been raised from her sickbed and restored to wholeness of life, Simon’s mother begins at once to serve. All the baptized are given eternal life so that they, too, may serve his purpose and mission—a mission that goes beyond our churches, homes, and neighborhoods to the whole world. —DM

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February 11 /Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SO FAR, JESUS HAS BEEN MOVING about Galilee with relative freedom and ease. But after healing a leper, he experiences a reversal of roles. The leper, once isolated from the public, now walks openly about town, announcing what Jesus did. Because of this, Jesus must now isolate himself from a crowd infatuated with his miracles. That kind of attention gets you noticed, and not always for the right reasons.

Jesus is at a turning point and will have to decide how much he is willing to sacrifice for the message he was sent to preach: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mt 1:15). Will he remain

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isolated and safe, working in the shadows and staying under the radar? Or will he back up his radical teaching and verify the credibility of his message by his public actions, remaining close and accessible to those who need to hear this good news most?

We know what he will choose because it is foreshadowed in his gratuitous healing touch. Jesus could have kept his distance, healing the leper by the divine power of his words alone. But he went further, restoring the leper into communal life through the public witness of his human actions. Proclaiming the Gospel with credibility will require us to do the same. —DM

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