The second Sunday of Advent

First Reading: Isaiah 40.1-5, 9-11: Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Responsorial Psalm: 85. 8ab+9, 10-11, 12-13 (R. 7)

Response:

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Second Reading: 2 Peter 3.8-15: We wait for new heavens and a new earth.

Gospel Acclamation:

Gospel: Mark 1.1-8: Prepare the way of the Lord

Hymn: On Jordan's bank, the Baptist's cry              

[Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge]

Words: Jordanis oras praevia. Charles Coffin  (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler (1808-76)
Tune: WINCHESTER NEW  adapted from a chorale in Musicalisches Hand-Buch (Hamburg, 1690)

            1.        On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
                        announces that the Lord is nigh;
                        come then and harken, for he brings
                        glad tidings from the King of kings. 

            2.        Then cleansed be every Christian breast,
                        and furnished for so great a guest!
                        Yea, let us each our hearts prepare
                        for Christ to come and enter there. 

            3.         For thou art our salvation, Lord,
                        our refuge and our great reward;
                        without thy grace our souls must fade,
                        and wither like a flower decayed. 

            4.         Stretch forth thine hand to heal our sore,
                        and make us rise, to fall no more;
                        once more upon thy people shine,
                        and fill the world with love divine. 

            5.         All praise, eternal Son, to thee
                        whose advent sets thy people free,
                        whom, with the Father, we adore,
                        and Spirit blest, for evermore.

Angus Gordon