A blessed Gaudetay Sunday. Today's lesson comes from the Apostle St. Paul to the Philippians chapter 4.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your

requests be known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your

hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Continuation of the Holy Gospel, according to St. John.

And this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,

Who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ.

And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you a prophet? And he answered no.

So they said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say

about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight

the way of the Lord. as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now, they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, then why are you baptizing if you are

neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you

stands one you do not know.

Even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Thus are the words of the Holy Gospel.

And then just a brief public service announcement, you know, if I skip a Sunday sermon, it's probably because I have a sermon for a first class feast later that week.

I said this in a previous Sunday sermon series, but I didn't make a lot of sense.

So in other words, I'm just doing one sermon a week on this channel. And so, for example,

there will be no Fourth Sunday of Advent sermon, but that is because I will have one up on Christmas

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