Second Sunday of Advent (B)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Isaiah 40.1-5, 9-11

“Take comfort, take comfort, O my people,”
says your God.
Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and proclaim unto her:
her warfare is accomplished;
her iniquity is pardoned;
she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
“Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord!
Make level in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low;
and the uneven land shall be made level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
O you who give good tidings to Zion:
get up on a high mountain.
O you who give good tidings to Jerusalem:
lift up your voice with strength;
lift it up; be not afraid;
say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”
Behold, the Lord God will come in power,
and with his arm he will rule.
Behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd:
he will gather the lambs in his arm,
and carry them in his bosom,
and will gently lead those with their young.

Responsorial – Psalm 85.9-10-11-12, 13-14 Resp. 8

R. Show us your lovingkindness, Lord, and grant us your salvation.

I will hear what the Lord God has to say,
for he will speak peace unto his people,
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.

R. Show us your lovingkindness, Lord, and grant us your salvation.

Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth springs out of the earth,
and righteousness has looked down from heaven.

R. Show us your lovingkindness, Lord, and grant us your salvation.

The Lord will give what is good,
and our land shall yield its increase.
Righteousness shall go before him,
and shall prepare a way for his footsteps to walk.

R. Show us your lovingkindness, Lord, and grant us your salvation.

Reading 2 – 2 Peter 3.8-14

Do not forget this one thing, beloved,
that one day for the Lord is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years is like one day.
The Lord is not remiss concerning his promise,
as some regard it remiss,
but is longsuffering to you,
not wishing that any would perish,
but that all would give way to reconsideration.

It will come, the day of the Lord, like a thief.
On that day the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat,
and the earth and the work done on it shall be burned up.

Since all these things are going to be dissolved in this way,
what sort of people should you be in living holiness and godliness,
waiting for and hastening the revelation of God’s day,
through which the heavens will be on fire and dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

But, according to his promise,
we await a new heavens and a new earth,
in which justice will dwell.
Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these things,
be careful that you may be found by him at peace,
spotless and blameless.

Gospel – Mark 1.1-8

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,
he who shall prepare your way.
A voice crying in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight!”

John came to be baptizing in the wilderness
and preaching a baptism of reconsideration
for the forgiveness of sins.
And there went out to him all the country of Judaea
and all the Jerusalemites.
They were baptized by him in the Jordan river,
confessing their sins.

John was clothed with camelhair,
and had a leather belt around his waist,
and he ate locusts and wild honey.
And he preached, saying,
“There will come after me he that is mightier than I,
I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals.
I baptized you in water; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.