'Prepare the Way of the Lord.' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Advent, Year B

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St John the Baptist Preaching
Joseph Parrocel [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Mark 1:1-8 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”


John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt round his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”


Léachtaí i nGaeilge


Avenue of Poplars
Vincent van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]

Charles Kuralt was a reporter with CBS TV in the USA whose On the Road stories were a regular part of the Evening News for 25 years. These were offbeat but positive stories about real persons and were often uplifting. I remember one in particular from about 1970 when I, then a young priest, was studying in the USA. It featured an elderly man in a small town in one of the Midwestern states. His town was about 10 kms from the next town but in order to go from one to the other you had to travel 20 or 30 kms. The authorities in both towns were unwilling to build a road to connect them.


So this man started to build a road himself, using logs as a foundation, as I recall.

Continue at Bangor to Bobbio.

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