Come Lord Jesus Series: Introduction and First Sunday Advent

 

COME LORD JESUS

Advent Journey Wreath: Come Lord Jesus Series.

Welcome to Come, Lord Jesus: Daily Reflections on the Entrance Antiphons for Advent Year A.

Are you like me?  Do you start the day with your focus on God?  Then the day gets underway and your focus on God fades into the distance. Your good intentions fade too?  The good news is that during advent this series Come Lord Jesus using the Entrance Antiphons may be just what we need to stay on track, refocus and desire Jesus more in our lives?

The Entrance Antiphons of Advent are short, luminous jewels drawn from the Scriptures—verses that carry the longing, hope, and ache of Israel as they waited for the Messiah. In just a line or two, each Antiphon opens a window into the heart of Advent: the desire for God, the need for conversion, the promise of salvation, and the quiet joy of expectation.

Each day of Advent, we will pause with the Antiphon appointed for the liturgy and allow its words to shape us from within. These reflections will be short but theologically rich, grounding us in Scripture and inviting us to deepen our longing for Christ. Advent is more than a countdown to Christmas; it is a season of reawakening—an invitation to lift up our souls, open our hearts, and prepare a place for the Lord who comes in grace, in mystery, and in glory.

I pray that these daily meditations help you walk through Advent with attentiveness and hope.  Come, Lord Jesus.

Let us begin

First Sunday Advent

Entrance Antiphon:

“To you, I lift up my soul, O my God.
In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame.
Nor let my enemies exult over me;
and let none who hope in you be put to shame.”
(Psalm 24:1–3)

Advent begins not with a gentle whisper but with a bold cry: “To you, I lift up my soul, O my God.” The Church gives us these words not as ornament but as orientation. Advent calls us to look up, to awaken, to reach beyond the comfortable patterns that so easily lull us into spiritual sleep. The very first movement of the season is upward—a deliberate raising of the inner life toward God.

This lifting of the soul requires courage. The psalmist prays, “Let me not be put to shame,” revealing the vulnerability inherent in trust. When we lift our souls, we expose our desires, our wounds, our hopes, our longing for God’s mercy. Advent invites us to stand honestly before the Lord who already sees the movements of our hearts and still says: Come to Me.

The “enemies” mentioned in the psalm are not limited to external threats. In Advent, they often come from within:
• the voice of discouragement that tells us nothing will ever change,
• the fatigue that smothers spiritual desire,
• the distractions that fracture our attention,
• the old disappointments that whisper, “Why hope again?”

These inner enemies exult whenever we resign ourselves to a smaller life, whenever we choose spiritual numbness over longing. But Advent resists this resignation. It stirs the deepest part of us to rise again, to hope again, to reach again for the God who comes.

Today marks the beginning of the liturgical year. With this Antiphon, the Church places on our lips a prayer that sets everything in motion. Before we act, we lift. Before we serve, we trust. Before we prepare, we turn our gaze upward toward God.

The earliest act of Advent is not doing but desiring.

Practice for Today:

Pause three times—morning, midday, evening—and pray slowly:
“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.”
Let this lifting begin Advent within you.