The Advent word for December 20th is TRULY. It is taken from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 11 (the gospel reading for the 3rd Sunday of Advent: “Truly I tell you” as he was letting folks know the TRUTH about John the Baptist.

Whenever I see “Truly” attributed to Jesus, my King James Version trained brain translates it to “Verily”. Verily seems a heavier, more important word, I don’t know why it is that way with me, blame the King James translators! Jesus talks a good bit about Truth – he says in John’s Gospel that he is the truth, saying “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Also in John’s Gospel he proclaims “I am the way, the truth and the life”, and earlier in that Gospel says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”. Truth, Verily, means a lot to Jesus as he is the TRUE embodiment of truth in his teaching and in his life. Verily.