First Reading Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11
Read in the CPDV: Isaiah 61
Third Sunday of Advent
Mass Readings for Sunday, December 13, 2026
On Sunday, December 13, 2026, the Church in the United States celebrates the Third Sunday of Advent (Year B); the liturgical color is rose (or violet). The Gospel is John 1:6-8, 19-28.
The liturgical day
Liturgical color
Rose (or violet)
- Celebration
- Third Sunday of Advent
- Season
- Advent · Week 3
- Rank
- Sunday
- Sunday cycle
- Year B
- Weekday cycle
- Cycle I
Mass readings US
Gaudete Sunday: rose vestments may be worn; violet is also correct.
Responsorial Psalm Luke 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54
Read in the CPDV: Luke 1
Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
16Rejoice always.
17Pray without ceasing.
18Give thanks in everything. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for all of you.
19Do not choose to extinguish the Spirit.
20Do not spurn prophecies.
21But test all things. Hold on to whatever is good.
22Abstain from every kind of evil.
23And may the God of peace himself sanctify you through all things, so that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved without blame unto the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24He who has called you is faithful. He shall act even now.
Catholic Public Domain Version
Read in the CPDV: The whole of 1 Thessalonians 5
Alleluia Isaiah 61:1 (cited in Luke 4:18)
Read in the CPDV: Isaiah 61
Gospel John 1:6-8, 19-28
6There was a man sent by God, whose name was John.
7He arrived as a witness to offer testimony about the Light, so that all would believe through him.
8He was not the Light, but he was to offer testimony about the Light.
- Some verses are not read.
19And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him, so that they might ask him, “Who are you?”
20And he confessed it and did not deny it; and what he confessed was: “I am not the Christ.”
21And they questioned him: “Then what are you? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
22Therefore, they said to him: “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”
23He said, “I am a voice crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ just as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24And some of those who had been sent were from among the Pharisees.
25And they questioned him and said to him, “Then why do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the Prophet?”
26John answered them by saying: “I baptize with water. But in your midst stands one, whom you do not know.
27The same is he who is to come after me, who has been placed ahead of me, the laces of whose shoes I am not worthy to loosen.”
28These things happened in Bethania, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Catholic Public Domain Version
Read in the CPDV: The whole of John 1
Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar.
In US parishes the readings are proclaimed from the NABRE; the text shown here is the Catholic Public Domain Version.
Old Testament readings and the psalm are listed with a link to their chapter: the US Lectionary numbers some of their verses differently from the CPDV, so their text is not printed here. Psalm citations keep the Lectionary’s Hebrew numbering; the CPDV numbers the Psalms as the Vulgate does.
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Saint of the day
Virgin and Martyr · Feast day December 13
Patron of the blind and those with eye trouble
Read about St. LucyThe day’s Mass celebrates the Third Sunday of Advent.