Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Homily – Saint Ambrose of Milan:
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Heron, Arsenius and Isidore, and Dioscorus, a boy. In the persecution of Decius, the first three were subjected to all the refinements of cruelty by the judge, who, seeing them displaying the same constancy, ordered that they should be cast into the fire. But Dioscorus, after repeated scourgings, was set free through the intervention of divine Providence for the consolation of the faithful.
At Antioch, the birthday of the holy martyrs Drusus, Zosimus and Theodore.
The same day, the martyrdom of the Saints Justus and Abundius, who were cast into the flames in the time of the emperor Numerian and the governor Olybrius, but having escaped uninjured, they were struck with the sword.
At Rheims, the holy bishop Nicasius, his sister, the virgin Eutropia, and their companions, martyrs, who were put to death by barbarians hostile to the Church.
On the island of Cyprus, the birthday of blessed Spiridion, bishop. He was one of those confessors who were condemned to labour in the mines, after the plucking out of their right eye and the severing of the sinews of the left knee. This prelate was renowned for the gift of prophecy and glorious miracles, and in the Council of Nicaea he confounded a heathen philosopher who insulted the Christian religion and brought him to the faith.
At Bergamo, St. Viator, bishop and confessor.
At Pavia, St. Pompey, bishop.
At Naples in Campania, St. Agnellus, abbot. Illustrious by the gift of miracles, he was often seen with the standard of the cross delivering the city besieged by enemies.
At Ubeda in Spain, St. John of the Cross, confessor, companion of St. Theresa in reforming the Carmelites. His feast is kept on the twenty-fourth of November.
At Milan, St. Matronian, hermit.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
Today the Church begins the Fast of Quatuor Tempora, or, as we call it, of Ember days: it includes also the Friday and Saturday of this same week. This observance is not peculiar to the Advent liturgy. It is one which has been fixed for each of the four seasons of the Ecclesiastical Year. We may consider it as one of those practices which the Church took from the Synagogue, for the Prophet Zacharias speaks of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months (Zacharias viii. 19). Its introduction into the Christian Church would seem to have been made in the apostolic times. Such, at least, is the opinion of Saint Leo, of Saint Isidore of Seville, of Rabanus Maurus, and of several other ancient Christian writers. It is remarkable, on the other hand, that the Orientals do not observe this fast. From the first ages, the Quatuor Tempora were kept in the Roman Church at the same time of the year as at present. As to the expression, which is not infrequently used in the early writers, of The Three Times and not The Four, we must remember, that in the spring these Days always come in the first week of Lent, a period already consecrated to the most rigorous fasting and abstinence, and that consequently they could add nothing to the penitential exercises of that portion of the year.
The intentions which the Church has in the fast of the Ember Days are the same as those of the Synagogue: namely, to consecrate to God by penance the four Seasons of the year. The Ember Days of Advent are known in ecclesiastical antiquity by the name of the Fast of the tenth Month, and Saint Leo, in one of his Sermons on this Fast, and of which the Church has inserted a passage in the second Nocturn of the third Sunday of Advent, tells us that a special fast was fixed for this time of the year because the fruits of the earth had then all been gathered in and that it behoved Christians to testify their gratitude to God by a sacrifice of abstinence, thus rendering themselves more worthy to approach to God, the more they were detached from the love of created things, “for Fasting,” adds the holy Doctor, “has ever been the nourishment of virtue. Abstinence is the source of chaste thoughts, of wise resolutions, and of salutary counsel. By voluntary mortifications, the flesh dies to its concupiscences and the spirit is renewed in virtue. But since Fasting alone is not sufficient by which to secure the soul’s salvation, let us add to it works of mercy towards the poor. Let us make that which we retrench from indulgence, serve to the exercise of virtue. Let the abstinence of him that fasts become the meal of the poor man.”
Let us, the children of the Church, practise what is in our power of these admonitions. And since the actual discipline of Advent is so very mild, let us be so much the more fervent in fulfilling the precept of the fast of the Ember Days. By these few exercises which are now required of us, let us keep up within ourselves the zeal of our forefathers for this holy season of Advent. We must never forget, that although the interior preparation is what is absolutely essential for our profiting by the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, yet this preparation could scarcely be real unless it manifested itself by the exterior practices of religion and penance.
The fast of the Ember Days has another object besides that of consecrating the four seasons of the year to God by an act of penance. It has also in view the Ordination of the Ministers of the Church, which takes place on the Saturday and of which notice was formerly given to the people during the Mass of the Wednesday. In the Roman Church the Ordination held in the month of December was for a long time the most solemn of all, and it would appear from the ancient Chronicles of the Popes that, excepting very extraordinary cases, the tenth month was for several ages the only time for the conferring Holy Orders in Rome. The faithful should unite with the Church in this her intention, and offer to God their fasting and abstinence for the purpose of obtaining worthy Ministers of the Word and the Sacraments, and true Pastors of the people. The Church does not read anything, in the Matins of today, from the Prophet Isaias: she merely reads a sentence from the Chapter of Saint Luke which gives our Lady’s Annunciation, to which she subjoins a passage from Saint Ambrose’s Homily on that Gospel.
The fact of this Gospel having been chosen for the Office and Mass of today has made the Wednesday of the third week of Advent a very marked day in the calendar. In several ancient Ordinaries used by many of the larger Churches, both Cathedral and Abbatial, we find it prescribed that feasts falling on this Wednesday should be transferred: that the ferial prayers should not be said kneeling on that day; that the Gospel Missus est, that is, of the Annunciation, should be sung at Matins by the Celebrant, vested in a white cope, with cross, lights and incense, the great bell tolling meanwhile; that in Abbeys, the Abbot should preach a homily to the Monks, as on solemn feasts. We are indebted to this custom for the four magnificent Sermons of Saint Bernard on our Blessed Lady, and which are entitled: Super Missus est.Gospel – Luke i. 26
At that time: The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin’s name was Mary.Praise be to you, O Christ.
Homily – Saint Ambrose of Milan:
The mysteries of God are unsearchable, and it is especially declared by a Prophet that a man can hardly know His counsels (Wisdom ix. 13) Nevertheless, some things have been revealed to us, and we may gather from some of the words and works of the Lord our Saviour, that there was a special purpose of God, in the fact that she who was chosen to be the mother of the Lord was espoused to a man. Why did not the power of the Highest overshadow her before she was so espoused? Perhaps it was lest any might blasphemously say that she had conceived in adultery the Holy One.On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Heron, Arsenius and Isidore, and Dioscorus, a boy. In the persecution of Decius, the first three were subjected to all the refinements of cruelty by the judge, who, seeing them displaying the same constancy, ordered that they should be cast into the fire. But Dioscorus, after repeated scourgings, was set free through the intervention of divine Providence for the consolation of the faithful.
At Antioch, the birthday of the holy martyrs Drusus, Zosimus and Theodore.
The same day, the martyrdom of the Saints Justus and Abundius, who were cast into the flames in the time of the emperor Numerian and the governor Olybrius, but having escaped uninjured, they were struck with the sword.
At Rheims, the holy bishop Nicasius, his sister, the virgin Eutropia, and their companions, martyrs, who were put to death by barbarians hostile to the Church.
On the island of Cyprus, the birthday of blessed Spiridion, bishop. He was one of those confessors who were condemned to labour in the mines, after the plucking out of their right eye and the severing of the sinews of the left knee. This prelate was renowned for the gift of prophecy and glorious miracles, and in the Council of Nicaea he confounded a heathen philosopher who insulted the Christian religion and brought him to the faith.
At Bergamo, St. Viator, bishop and confessor.
At Pavia, St. Pompey, bishop.
At Naples in Campania, St. Agnellus, abbot. Illustrious by the gift of miracles, he was often seen with the standard of the cross delivering the city besieged by enemies.
At Ubeda in Spain, St. John of the Cross, confessor, companion of St. Theresa in reforming the Carmelites. His feast is kept on the twenty-fourth of November.
At Milan, St. Matronian, hermit.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
