大象传媒

Sing Joyfully, Byrd, fades in and out of opening speech (St David鈥檚 Cathedral Choir, Cardiff, from 大象传媒 Archive)

Archbishop Mark:
Bore da, a chroeso.聽 Good morning, and welcome to Sunday Worship, from St. David鈥檚 Catholic Cathedral in Cardiff. I鈥檓 Archbishop Mark O鈥橳oole, the Archbishop of Cardiff and Bishop of Menevia, the areas covering South, Mid and West Wales, together with Herefordshire.聽 Today we celebrate the 3rd Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday, meaning 鈥楻ejoice鈥�.聽

I鈥檓 joined here by some of our local young people, from the schools of Corpus Christi and Mary Immaculate. Providentially, a well-known saying of聽 聽St. David, our patron here in Wales, is 鈥渂e joyful, keep the faith.鈥� I find it comforting to think that our patron saint taught us to find joy in the living out of our faith, our relationship with God. Even though Christianity here in Wales dates back to Roman times, it has strong Celtic links, particularly through St. David and the array of other saints who made their mark in this land around the 6th century. The cathedral in which we are today, fittingly, is dedicated to St. David. It was completed in 1887, but after being bombed during the 2nd World War, was restored and rebuilt in the 1950s. Located in the heart of this lively capital city, Cardiff, it provides an oasis of peace and joy amidst the hustle and bustle of the surrounding city life and, particularly perhaps in this busy time leading up to Christmas, serves as a reminder of the true meaning of the season.

Advent is an important time of the year for all Christians, as we prepare to commemorate and re-live an event that changed history: the birth of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Gaudete Sunday takes its name from the verse often heard at the beginning of the Mass, from the writings of St. Paul: 鈥淩ejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.鈥� We rejoice today, because Jesus鈥� coming is almost upon us: we can sense the increase in expectancy and hope as Christmas gets closer and closer. We look forward to the joy we experience in the birth of Christ, the joy that we find in God coming to be with us to share聽our human condition, our ups and downs, and to redeem us.

And this is our theme today: looking forward in joy to the coming of the one who loves us and has changed history forever, who shows us what it means to be human, and has opened the way to Heaven for us. We begin with a hymn expressing these sentiments: 鈥楬ills of the North Rejoice鈥�.聽

MUSIC 1 - Hills of the North Rejoice (Llandaff Cathedral Choir, from 大象传媒 Archive)

Archbishop Mark:
O God,who see how your people faithfully await the feast of the Lord鈥檚 Nativity,enable us, we pray,to attain the joys of so great a salvationand to celebrate them alwayswith solemn worship and glad rejoicing.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,God, for ever and ever.Amen.

Reader:
Our first reading comes from the Prophet Isaiah, foretelling the coming of the Saviour, and expressing the joy that it brings to the of whole creation.聽

READING Isaiah 35:1-6,10
Let the wilderness and the dry-lands exult,let the wasteland rejoice and bloom,let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil,let it rejoice and sing for joy.聽

The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it,the splendour of Carmel and Sharon;they shall see the glory of the Lord,the splendour of our God.聽

Strengthen all weary hands,steady all trembling kneesand say to all faint hearts,'Courage! Do not be afraid.

'Look, your God is coming, vengeance is coming,聽the retribution of God; he is coming to save you.'

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,the ears of the deaf unsealed,then the lame shall leap like a deerand the tongues of the dumb sing for joy;for those the Lord has ransomed shall return.

They will come to Zion shouting for joy,everlasting joy on their faces;joy and gladness will go with themand sorrow and lament be ended.聽

Reader:聽 The Word of the Lord.聽

Response: Thanks be to God.

MUSIC 2: PSALM 42 (St David鈥檚 Cathedral Choir, Cardiff, from 大象传媒 Archive)

FIRST REFLECTION 鈥� Archbishop Mark

Several years ago I heard of a children's nativity play in which a small boy called Johnny, who had Downs Syndrome, was given the part of the inn keeper.聽 As Joseph and the pregnant Mary arrived in Bethlehem and knocked at the door, he was to say the line, "There is no room at the inn鈥� three times.聽 He was then to slam the door in their faces.He practised it over and over.聽 When the day came for the school play he said his line three times nice and loud, 鈥淭here is no room at the inn鈥�.聽 He then stopped and paused.聽 As Mary and Joseph turned away, Johnny was filled with regret and sadness.聽 Not being able to contain himself, he shouted, "There's no room at the inn, but you can come and stay at my house."

I think Johnny has got the reality of this season absolutely right.聽 Today is Gaudete Sunday.聽 Rejoicing Sunday.聽 We light the third of four candles on the Advent Wreath.聽 Clergy wear Rose Coloured robes rather than the deep purple of the Advent Season.聽 All this to remind us that the celebration of Jesus鈥� birth is closer.聽 We anticipate some of its joy.聽 We become more childlike, filled-with a sense of anticipation.聽 In that Nativity play, Johnny anticipated the joy Jesus鈥� birth brings.聽 He recognised that Jesus came to show us that nobody is an outsider.聽 All are welcome.聽 All find a home.聽聽

Many centuries before Jesus birth, the prophet Isaiah anticipated this joy too.聽 鈥淟et the wilderness and dry-land exult, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom, let it bring forth flowers like the jonquil, let it rejoice and sing for joy鈥�. Look your God is coming鈥� (Isaiah 35).We may often think that God is far from us, but the birth of the Saviour that we are preparing to celebrate, was a birth into a fallen, broken, and at times, violent world.聽 The God who became flesh in Jesus Christ does not stand afar off from our human struggle and chaos.聽 He enters into the very heart of it, experiencing Himself the vulnerability of our situation.聽

Born in a borrowed stable and hunted for his life in his earliest days, Jesus knows our fragility from the inside.聽 This is what gives us joy.聽 A joy filled with hope, because God transforms our weakness by uniting it to Himself.聽 It is this that we celebrate.聽 Jesus is beside us, as our brother and Lord.聽 May He give each of us, and all whom we love, something of His joy.聽聽

MUSIC 3 - Exsultate Justi (St David鈥檚 Cathedral Choir, Cardiff, from 大象传媒 Archive)

MUSIC 4 鈥� ALLELUIA Acclamation (St David鈥檚 Cathedral Choir, Cardiff, from 大象传媒 Archive)

Reader:聽 The Lord be with you

Response: And with your spirit

Reader:聽 A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew.

Response: Glory to you, O Lord.

GOSPEL - Matthew 11:2-11聽聽

John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him, 鈥楢re you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?鈥� Jesus answered, 鈥楪o back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.鈥橝s the messengers were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the people about John: 鈥榃hat did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No? Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Oh no, those who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces. Then what did you go out for? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet: he is the one of whom scripture says: Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way before you. I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.鈥�

Reader:聽 The Gospel of the Lord

Response: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

SECOND REFLECTION 鈥� Archbishop Mark
I once saw a picture of a T-Junction in Australia.聽 There were two roads that could be taken and two signs.聽 One sign pointed in one direction and read 鈥淣ot the way to Sydney鈥�.聽 The second pointed at the other road and read, 鈥淣ot the way to Melbourne鈥�.聽 聽

These were ineffective signs.聽 They tell where you do not want to go.聽 They point rather to themselves, even if it is with a bit of attractive Australian humour.聽聽

On this rejoicing Sunday, we have before us a good sign post.聽 John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus.聽 He points not to himself but to Jesus.聽 In the passage from the Gospel that we have heard, we see him in prison.聽 He has his doubts but Jesus supports him and sends John a messenger,

鈥淭ell, John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me鈥� (Matthew 11).聽 We know this is going to be a hard winter 鈥� food and fuel poverty, the uncertainty of the war in Ukraine.聽 Economic and political instability.聽 We are aware we live in our own kind of wilderness.聽 There are many that will point and tell where not to go.聽 But few who can point in the right direction.聽 It is easy to become discouraged.聽 We need good signposts.聽 And John the Baptist is such a signpost.聽聽

He points us to the most important gift of this season.聽 The gift of a person.聽 The gift of Jesus Christ.聽 It is about God emptying Himself to become one of us and taking human flesh as a tiny, vulnerable child.聽 This child is the Word of God and He says to each of us, 鈥淕od loves you, God cares about you, God walks alongside you. Your life has meaning even in the face of the struggles.鈥澛� 聽God could have come in a big display of power and wealth but that would have made us feel little and unimportant.聽 By being weak, he makes us aware of how blessed we are and he challenges us to give of our best, just as he has given of his best.聽

Each of us can give the best of ourselves to others, as God has given the best of Himself to us in Jesus.聽 Let us be like John the Baptist.聽 A good signpost, pointing others in the right direction.聽聽

MUSIC 5 - O Admirabile Commercium (St David鈥檚 Cathedral Choir, Cardiff, from 大象传媒 Archive)

Archbishop Mark:

The joy we experience comes from the trust we have in God鈥檚 promises. With that trust, let us now bring before Him our own needs, and the needs of the world.

INTERCESSIONS (Led by School Pupils)聽
(Rorate Coeli weaves in and out of speech (Tenebrae, The Dream of Herod, 2005)

Let us pray for the Church:聽that, guided by the Holy Spirit she may bring the joy of the Gospel to all people.聽
Let us pray for world: that all may work for peace and justice. Lord, in your mercy, Hear our Prayer.

Let us pray for all those who do not experience joy in their lives: that they may now come to experience more deeply the message of Christmas.聽 For all those who will find things difficult this Christmas:聽 that they may receive the comfort and consolation of the Lord.聽 For all those who have died, that the Lord, in His abundant mercy,may grant them eternal rest. Arglwydd, yn dy drugaredd, Gwranda ar ein gweddi.聽聽

Let us now bring the personal intentions that we hold in our hearts before the Lord. Let us ask Mary our Mother to intercede for us:聽

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Archbishop Mark:

Heavenly Father, We know that you always hear our prayers. We ask you to look lovingly upon us,and grant us what we need. Through Christ our Lord.聽 Amen.

MUSIC 6 - Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (St David鈥檚 Cathedral Choir, Pembrokeshire, from 大象传媒 Archive)

School pupils:聽
Now we join together in the words our Saviour taught us.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Archbishop Mark:

Our final hymn, 鈥楾ell out my Soul鈥�, expresses the joy of Mary, the Mother of God, as the birth of her Son Jesus approached, and she visited her cousin Elizabeth.

MUSIC 7 - Tell Out My Soul聽 (Welsh Chamber Singers, Cardiff, from 大象传媒 Archive)

BLESSING (Archbishop Mark)

May the almighty and merciful God,by whose grace you have placed your faith in the First Coming of his Only Begotten Sonand yearn for his coming again, sanctify you by the radiance of Christ鈥檚 Adventand enrich you with his blessing.Amen.

As you run the race of this present life,may he make you firm in faith, joyful in hope and active in charity.Amen.

So that, rejoicing now with devotion at the Redeemer鈥檚 coming in the flesh,you may be endowed with the rich reward of eternal life when he comes again in majesty.Amen.

Bendith Duw Hollalluog a fo gyda chwi, y Tad a鈥檙 Mab a鈥檙 Ysbryd Glan.聽 Amen.

ORGAN PLAYOUT 鈥� FINAL from SYMPHONIE 1, VIERNE (Played by Jeff Howard, from 大象传媒 Archive)