Let us adore the Lord, the King who is to come.
Year: C(I). Psalm week: 2. Liturgical Colour: Violet.
About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:
Second Reading: Eusebius of Caeserea (c.260 - c.340)
Eusebius became bishop of Caeserea Maritima (an ancient city, later abandoned, on what is now the Israeli coast between Jaffa and Tel Aviv) in about 341. It is reasonable to suppose that he was born in the city, which was at the time an important centre of Christian learning.
Eusebius was a prolific author and controversialist. Large parts of his work no longer survive. Doctrinally, he was not always found to be orthodox, at a time when the details of orthodoxy were still being worked out. His enduring contribution is his Ecclesiastical History, which is long, thorough and scholarly and an indispensable source for the history of the early Church. The Second Readings in the Office of Readings also include, in Advent, an extract from a commentary of his on the book of the prophet Isaiah.
Liturgical colour: violet
Violet is a dark colour, ‘the gloomy cast of the mortified, denoting affliction and melancholy’. Liturgically, it is the colour of Advent and Lent, the seasons of penance and preparation.