First Sunday of Advent
We begin the Season of Advent, a time of hope and of new beginnings. On this first Sunday a candle is lit as a sign that a new dawn begins. We are called to wake up and turn towards the light that glows ever more brightly in the darkness that surrounds it. Let us listen and take to heart the living Word proclaimed during these weeks for we are once again assured that the Living Word of God is forever new and forever with us. The prayers and readings this Sunday urge us to be awake to the presence of the Lord in our lives and looking ahead to when he will come again. “You know the time; it is now the hour for you to wake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is advanced, the day is at hand.”
Next Saturday is the memorial of St Nicholas, patron saint of the Crypt and of our Cathedral Primary School. In anticipation of this the school children and staff will have a celebration service on Friday in the Crypt at 10.15am.
On Saturday at 12noon Archbishop Malcolm will preside at Mass to celebrate the occasion of his silver Jubilee as a bishop. All are welcome to attend this Mass and join him in giving thanks to God for his years of service as a Bishop in Nottingham and more recently as Archbishop of Liverpool.
“They watch for Christ who are awake, alive, quick sighted, zealous in honouring him. Who look for him in all that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated, if they found he was coming at once….
This then is to watch: To be detached from what is present, and to live in what is unseen; to live in the thought of Christ as he came once, and as he will come again; to desire his second coming from our grateful and affectionate remembrance of his first.” (Saint John Newman)
Monsignor O’Brien
CATHEDRAL DEAN
