30 DECEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

On this the sixth day since the Birth of our Emmanuel, let us consider how the Divine Infant lies in the crib of a stable, and is warmed by the breath of the ox and the ass, as Isaias had foretold: “The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel has not known me (Isaias i. 3). Thus does the great God enter that world which his own Hands have created! The dwellings of men are refused Him, for man has a hard heart for His God, and an indifference which is a real contempt. The only shelter He can find to be born in is a stable, and that necessitates His coming into the world in the company of poor dumb brutes.

At all events, these animals are His own work. When He created the irrational world of living things, He subjected it, as the inferior part of creation, to Man. And Man was to ennoble it by referring it to the Creator. When Adam sinned, this subjection, this harmony, was broken. The Apostle teaches us that the brute creation is not insensible to the degradation thus forced upon it by sinful man (Romans viii. 19, 20). It obeys him with reluctance. It not infrequently rebels against and deservedly punishes him, and on the day of judgement, it will take the side of its Creator and avenge itself of that wickedness of which man has made it the unwilling instrument (Wisdom v. 21).

In the mystery of His Birth, the Son of God visits this part of His creation. Men refused to receive Him and He accepts the hospitality of the dwelling of brutes. It is from their dwelling that He begins the divine career of the Three-and-Thirty years. The first human beings He invites into the company of His blessed Mother and His dear Saint Joseph, the first He admits into the stable to see and adore Himself are shepherds who were busy watching their flocks and whose simple hearts have not been corrupted by the atmosphere of cities.

The Ox — which, as we learn from Ezechiel (Ezechiel i. 10) and Saint John (Apocalypse iv. 7) is one of the symbolic creatures standing round God’s throne — is the figure of the sacrifices of the Old Law. The blood of oxen has flowed in torrents on the altar of the Temple: it was the imperfect and material offering prescribed to be made to God until He should send the True Victim. The Infant Jesus who lies in the crib is that Victim, and Saint Paul tells us what he says to His Eternal Father: “Sacrifices and oblations and holocausts for sin, you would not have, neither are they pleasing to you; behold, I come! (Hebrews x. 8, 9).

The Prophet Zachary (Zacharias ix. 9), foretelling the peaceful triumph of the Meek King, says that He will make His entry into Sion riding on an Ass. We will assist, further on in the year, at the accomplishment of this prophecy. Now that we are at Bethlehem in our Christmas mystery, let us observe how the heavenly Father places His Divine Son between the instrument of His peaceful triumph and the symbol of His Sacrifice on Calvary.

Ah dear Jesus, Creator of Heaven and Earth, how strange is this your entrance into your own world! The whole universe should have given you a welcome of love and adoration— and yet, what motionless indifference! Not one house to take you in! Men buried in sleep! And when Mary had placed you in the crib, your first sight was that of two poor animals, the slaves of him who proudly rejected you! Yet, this sight did not displease you, for you do not despise the work of your hands. What afflicts your loving Heart is the presence of sin in our souls, the sight of that enemy of yours which has so often caused you to suffer. Oh hateful sin I we renounce it, and wish, dear Jesus, to acknowledge you for our Lord and Master, as did the Ox and the Ass! We will unite in that hymn of of peace, which creation is ever sending up to you, by henceforth adding to it the homage of our adoration and gratitude. Nay, we will lend speech to nature, and give it soul, and sanctify it, by referring all creatures to your service.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Spoleto, the birthday of the holy martyrs Sabinus, bishop, Exuperantius and Marcellus, deacons. Also of Venustian, governor, with his wife and sons, under the emperor Maximian. Marcellus and Exuperantius were first racked, then severely beaten with rods. Afterwards being mangled with iron hooks and burned in the sides, they terminated their martyrdom. Not long after, Venustian was put to the sword with his wife and sons. St. Sabinus, after having his hands cut off, and being a long time confined in prison, was scourged to death. The martyrdom of these saints is commemorated on the same day, although it occurred at different times.

At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Mansuetus, Severus, Appian, Donatus, Honorius and their companions.

At Thessalonica, St. Anysia, martyr.

In the same place, St. Anysius, bishop of that city.

At Milan, St. Eugene, bishop and confessor.

At Ravenna, St. Liberius, bishop.

At Aquila in Abruzzo, St. Rainerius, bishop.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

16 DECEMBER – SATURDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxv. 1‒9

O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt you, and give glory to your name: for you have done wonderful things, your designs of old faithful. Amen. For you have reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers to be no city, and to be no more built up forever. Therefore will a strong people praise you, the city of mighty nations will fear you... Because you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. And the Lord of hosts will make to all people, in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees. And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people are tied, and the web that He began over all nations. He will cast death down headlong forever: and the Lord God will wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he will take away from off the whole Earth: for the Lord has spoken it. And they will say in that day: “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for Him, and we will rejoice and be joyful in His salvation.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Yet a little while, and the conqueror of death will appear, and then, in the joy of our hearts, we will say: “Lo, this is our God: we have ~waited for Him, and He will save us. We have patiently waited for Him. This is He, and we will rejoice and be joyful in His salvation.” Let us, therefore, prepare the way of the Lord, that we may receive Him worthily, and in this work of our preparation, let us have recourse to Mary. Saturday is the day which is sacred to her. She will the more readily grant the prayers said to her upon it. Let us consider her in her grand privilege of being full of grace, carrying in her womb Him whom we so long to possess. If we ask her by what means she rendered herself worthy of such an immense favour, she will tell us that in her was simply fulfilled the prophecy which the Church so continually repeats during these days of Advent: “Every valley will be filled up.” The humble Mary was the valley blessed of the Lord, a valley beautiful and fertile in which God sowed the Divine Wheat, our Saviour, Jesus: for it is written in the Psalm that “the valleys will abound with corn” (Psalm lxiv. 14).

O Mary, it was your humility that drew down upon you the admiration of your Creator. If, from the high Heaven where He dwells, He had perceived a Virgin more humble in her love, He would have chosen her in preference to you: but no, it was you that won His predilection, O mystic valley, ever verdant and lovely in your flowers of grace. We that, like high hills, are so proud and such sinners, what shall we do? We must look on this God of ours who comes to us in infinite humility and then humble ourselves out of love and gratitude. O Blessed Mother! Obtain this grace for us. Pray for us that henceforth we may submit ourselves to the will of our Lord as you did when you spoke those admirable words: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord : may it be done to me according to thy word!”

9 DECEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us consider how the Immaculate Mary came into this world nine months after her Conception, and how each day of her life gave man fresh reason to hope for the great promises made him by God. Let us admire the fullness of grace which God has given to her, and contemplate the respect and the love with which the holy Angels look on her as the future Mother of Him who is to be their Head and King, as well as ours. Let us follow this august Queen to the Temple of Jerusalem where she is presented by her parents, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne. When but three years of age, she was initiated into all the secrets of divine love. “I always rose at midnight (thus she spoke of herself, in a revelation to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary), and went before the Altar of the Temple, where I besought of God that I might observe all the commandments of His Law "and be enriched with those graces which would render me pleasing to His Majesty. I most earnestly prayed Him that I might live to see that most holy virgin who was to bring forth into this world His own divine Son. I asked him to grant me to enjoy the use of my eyes that I might see her, of my tongue that I might praise her, of my hands that I might serve her, of my feet that I "might go her errands, and of my knees that I might adore the Son of God resting in her arms.”

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You, O Mary, you yourself were this virgin who was worthy of the praises of men and Angels! But God had not yet revealed it to you, and your heavenly humility forbade your thinking that the immense dignity which you so deeply venerated could ever be yours. Nay, you were the first and the only one of the daughters of Israel that had renounced all hope of ever being the Mother of the Messiah. To be Mother of the Messiah was, indeed, an ineffable honour. But it seemed as though it could only be received on the condition of having another Spouse besides God, and this you would not suffer. You would be united to God alone, and your vow of virginity which made you so, was dearer to you than the possibility of any privilege which would rob you even of a tittle of that. Your marriage with Saint Joseph, therefore, was a fresh lustre added to your incomparable purity while, in the designs of God, it provided you with the protection which your coming honours would soon require. We follow you, O Spouse of Joseph, into your house at Nazareth, where is to be spent your humble life. There we behold you diligent in all your duties, the valiant Woman of the Scriptures (Proverbs xxxi. 10), the object of the admiration of God and His Angels. Suffer us, O Mary, to unite our Advent devotions with the prayers which you offered up for the coming of the Messiah, with the veneration with which you thought upon Her that was to be His Mother, and with the inflamed desires with which you longed for the divine Saviour. We salute you as the Virgin (Isaias vii. 14) foretold by Isaias. It is yourself, O blessed Mother, that deserves the praise and love of the holy people and city, the redeemed of the Lord (Isaias xliii. 12).

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Gray in Burgundy, St. Peter Fourier, Canon Regular of Our Saviour, and founder of the Canonesses Regular of Our Lady for the education of girls. Because of his brilliant virtues and miracles Pope Leo XIII placed him in the Martyrology.

At Toledo in Spain, the birthday of the holy virgin Leocadia, a martyr in the persecution of the emperor Diocletian. By Dacian, prefect of Spain, she was condemned to a cruel imprisonment, where she was pining away, when, hearing of the barbarous tortures of blessed Eulalia and the other martyrs, she knelt down to pray and yielded up her undefiled spirit to Christ.

At Carthage, St. Restitutus, bishop and martyr, on whose feast St. Augustine delivered a discourse to the people in which he set forth his praises.

Also in Africa, the holy martyrs Peter, Successus, Bassian, Primitivus and twenty others.

At Limoges in France, St. Valeria, virgin and martyr.

At Verona, during the persecution of Diocletian, St. Proculus, bishop, who was buffeted, scourged with rods and driven out of the city. Being at length restored to his church, he rested in peace.

At Pavia, St. Syrus, first bishop of that city, who was renowned for miracles and virtues worthy of an apostle.

At Apamea in Syria, blessed Julian, bishop, who was distinguished for holiness in the time of Severus.

At Perigueux in France, the holy abbot Cyprian, a man of great sanctity.

At Nazianzus, St. Gorgonia, sister of blessed Gregory the Theologian, who related her virtues and miracles.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.