Fourth Sunday of Advent (C)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Micah 5.1-4a

The LORD says:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah,
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
from you one will come for me
who is to be ruler in Israel;
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.

Therefore the Lord will abandon them
until the time when she who is in labor gives birth.
Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.
He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God:
and they will remain, for then he will be great
even to the ends of the earth.
He shall be peace.

Responsorial – Psalm 80.2-3, 15-16, 18-19 Resp. 4

R. Turn us back, O God, and cause your face to shine on us, and we shall be saved.

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
You who dwell among the cherubim, shine forth.
Stir up your strength,
and come to save us.

R. Turn us back, O God, and cause your face to shine on us, and we shall be saved.

Return, we beseech you, O God of Hosts.
Look down from heaven and see,
Visit this vine and the vineyard
which your right hand has planted,
the son whom you made strong for yourself.

R. Turn us back, O God, and cause your face to shine on us, and we shall be saved.

Let your hand be upon the human of your right hand,
upon the son of human whom you made strong for yourself.
So we will not withdraw from you;
Enliven us and we will call upon your name.

R. Turn us back, O God, and cause your face to shine on us, and we shall be saved.

Reading 2 – Hebrews 10.5-10

Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but you prepared a body for me;
You had no pleasure in holocausts and sin offerings.
Then I said, as it is written in the scroll of the book,
“Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.”

He said before, “Sacrifices and offerings
holocausts and sin offerings
you neither desired nor had pleasure in.”
These are offered according to the law.
Then he said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.”
He takes away the first,
that he may establish the second,
by this will we have been sanctified
through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Gospel – Luke 1.39-45

Mary arose in those days
and went into the hill country with haste,
into a town of Judah,
and entered into the house of Zachariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the baby leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
She called out with a loud voice, and said,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
Why am I so favored,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For behold, when the voice of your greeting
came to my ears,
the baby leaped in my womb for joy!
Blessed is she who believed,
that there will be a fulfillment of the things
which have been spoken to her from the Lord!”