Scripture Reflection - November 30, 2025

Sr. Mary Ann Collins, OP
7 minutes ago
2 min read

First Sunday of Advent

First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5

Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14

Gospel: Matthew 24:37-44

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of a time of preparation for the coming of our God. We enter a season filled with anticipation as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas. It’s also a season of waiting and hoping for his return at the end of time. It’s a time of certainty and uncertainty since no one knows the precise time of our God’s coming in glory.

This is our wake-up call. Time to shake off sleep, lethargy, and old ways and habits. It’s time to wake up to the life we take for granted, the world that needs conversion, and the God who walks with us each and every moment. These next few weeks will find us waiting for the dawn of a new day, embodied in the arrival of the Christ Child, whose birth is supposed to usher in a time of peace, one that is forever on the horizon, but yet to be realized.

Reflecting on our present time, we long for a time of peace as we witness the fear in our cities, the wars in our world, and the unrest in our hearts. Advent is a time of patient endurance and waiting, hoping outrageously for peace now, for justice to come among us. It is a time of hope, fiery change, and light. The Holy One is coming to visit and is intent on stealing us away from all we are attached to and binding us to one another in Peace. The Son of Man is coming at the time we least expect.

We are reminded to be on the lookout for the new things God will do. Look out for new possibilities that can only come about because God is in the mix. How will we work to make this peaceful vision a lived experience? How can we offer hope to our world that is anticipating the advent of a new time?

I offer you this poem by Anne Osdieck as we begin this Advent season:

Come,

Lord Jesus,

make us ready

for your kindom.

Let us find you

in the crimson colored dusk,

in the crescent moon and flying geese.

Let us see you

in laughing children,

in our brothers and sisters

everywhere.