Advent 2027

Advent 2027 begins on Sunday, November 28, 2027, and ends on Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24. It opens a new year of grace, Year C, in which most Sunday Gospels come from St. Luke. This page gives the 2027 dates and readings; for the Advent wreath, its prayers, the Rorate Masses and how to keep the season well, see our full guide, Advent 2026, and the Advent wreath prayers.

Advent 2027 at a glance

• Christ the King: Sunday, November 21, 2027; see Christ the King 2027
• First Sunday of Advent: November 28, 2027
• St. Andrew: Tuesday, November 30, when the St. Andrew Christmas novena begins
• Second Sunday of Advent: December 5
• The Immaculate Conception: Wednesday, December 8, a holy day of obligation
• Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete): December 12
• Fourth Sunday of Advent: December 19
• Christmas Eve: Friday, December 24
• Christmas: Saturday, December 25, 2027, followed by the Holy Family on Sunday, December 26

The four Sundays of Advent 2027 and their Gospels

First Sunday of Advent, November 28: lift up your heads

Year C opens with St. Luke's words on the end of the age (Luke 21:25-28, 34-36), with Jeremiah's promise of a just branch from the house of David as the first reading. The Douay-Rheims gives the Lord's command this way: "But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand" (Luke 21:28). Advent begins by watching for his second coming before it turns to his first.

Second Sunday of Advent, December 5: prepare the way

John the Baptist appears in the desert, and Luke dates his preaching to "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar" (Luke 3:1-6). The first reading is from Baruch: "Arise, O Jerusalem," take off the garment of mourning.

Third Sunday of Advent, December 12: Gaudete

The Sunday takes its name from the entrance antiphon, St. Paul's "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Gaudete in Domino semper, Philippians 4:4), which is also the second reading. Rose vestments may be worn, and we light the rose candle of the wreath. In the Gospel (Luke 3:10-18) the crowds ask John, "What then shall we do?" and he answers with plain duties: share your coat, deal honestly, be content.

This year December 12 is also the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but a Sunday of Advent outranks it. The US bishops' calendar notes that the feast is omitted in 2027, and that Our Lady of Guadalupe "may be appropriately honored in the Homily, Universal Prayer, and hymns" that Sunday. Many Hispanic parishes will keep their mañanitas to Our Lady before dawn on December 12 all the same.

Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 19: the Visitation

The Gospel is Mary's journey to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45), and the first reading is Micah's prophecy of the ruler who will come from little Bethlehem. Christmas is six days away.

Saints and feasts of Advent 2027

• St. Andrew, Tuesday, November 30: the apostle, and the start of the St. Andrew Christmas novena.
• St. Nicholas, Monday, December 6: an optional memorial on an Advent weekday this year; see St. Nicholas Day.
• The Immaculate Conception, Wednesday, December 8: the patronal feast of the United States, always a holy day of obligation.
• St. Juan Diego, Thursday, December 9.
• St. Lucy, Monday, December 13, and St. John of the Cross, Tuesday, December 14.
• December 16 to 24: Las Posadas and Simbang Gabi.
• December 17 to 23: the O Antiphons, when Advent turns from the Lord's return to his birth.

Advent and the new liturgical year

Advent is the beginning of the Church's year. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the Gelasian Sacramentary gave the season five Sundays, which Pope St. Gregory VII (1073-1085) reduced to four, and that churches in Gaul once kept a Lenten-style fast from St. Martin's day, November 11, until Christmas. On November 28, 2027, the Sunday readings move from Year B (Mark) to Year C (Luke), and the weekday readings change to Cycle II.

The ancient Advent prayer is Isaiah's, in the Douay-Rheims translation:

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour: and let justice spring up together. (Isaias 45:8)

Sung in Latin as the Rorate caeli, it gives its name to the Rorate Masses celebrated by candlelight before dawn on Advent weekdays, often in honor of Our Lady.

Christmas and the Holy Family back to back

Plan ahead for the end of Advent 2027. Christmas falls on Saturday, December 25, and the Feast of the Holy Family on Sunday, December 26. They are two obligations. A Mass on the evening of Friday, December 24, counts for Christmas, and a Mass on the evening of Saturday, December 25, counts for Sunday, but one Mass cannot serve for both. The full list of the year's holy days is on holy days of obligation 2027, and the whole year on the Catholic calendar 2027.

Come, Lord Jesus.