19 DECEMBER – EMBER FRIDAY IN ADVENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church does not read anything from the Prophet Isaias today. She merely gives, in the Office of Matins, a sentence of that chapter of Saint Luke’s Gospel which relates the mystery of our Lady’s Visitation: and to this she subjoins a fragment of Saint Ambrose’s Homily upon that passage. The considerations and affections with which this important event of our Lady’s life ought to inspire the faithful will be given further on in the Proper of the Saints.

The Station for today is in the Church of the Holy Apostles, which many suppose to have been first built by Constantine, and in which the glorious bodies of the two holy Apostles Philip and James the Less, buried under the altar, await the second Coming of Him who chose them as his co-operators in the work of the first and who, on the last day, will give them to sit upon thrones near His own, judging the twelve Tribes of Israel (Matthew xix.).

Gospel – Luke i. 39

At that time: Mary arose, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah, and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Homily – Saint Ambrose of Milan:

When any one asks another for credence, he is bound to give some reasonable ground. And so the Angel, when he announced to Mary the counsel of God, gave as a proof the conception of Elizabeth, then aged and barren, that Mary might perceive by this example that with God nothing is impossible. When the holy Virgin had heard it she arose and went to visit her cousin. She did not go to see if what she had heard was true, because she did not believe God or because she knew not who the messenger had been, or yet because she doubted the fact adduced in proof. She went joyfully as one who has received a mercy in answer to his vows goes to pay the same. She went with devotion, as a godly person goes to execute a religious duty. She went into the hill country in joyful haste. And is it not something that she went up into the hills? God was already in her womb, and her feeling bore her continually upward. The grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow working.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Philippi in Macedonia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Rufus and Zosimus (107 AD), who were of the number of the disciples by whom the primitive church was founded among the Jews and Greeks. Their happy martyrdom is mentioned by St. Polycarp in his Epistle to the Philippians.

At Laodicea in Syria, the martyrdom of the Saints Theotimus and Basilian.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Quinctus, Simplicius and others, who suffered in the persecution of Decius and Valerian.

In the same country, St. Moysetes, martyr.

Also in Africa, the holy martyrs Victurus, Victor, Victorinus, Adjutor, Quartus and thirty others.

At Mopsuestia in Cilicia, St. Auxentius, bishop, who, while he was a soldier under Licinius, preferred to surrender his military insignia rather than to offer grapes to Bacchus. Having been made bishop, he was renowned for merit and rested in peace.

At Tours, St. Gratian, consecrated first bishop of that city by Pope St. Fabrian. Celebrated for many miracles, he calmly went to his repose in the Lord.

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

Thanks be to God.

 

 

19 DECEMBER – THIRD GREATER ANTIPHON

THIRD GREATER ANTIPHON

O Root of Jesse, who stands as the standard of the people; before whom Kings will not open their lips; to whom the nations will pray: come and deliver us; tarry now no more.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

At length, O Son of Jesse! you are approaching the city of your ancestors. The Ark of the Lord has risen and journeys with the God that is in her to the place of her rest. “How beautiful are your steps, O daughter of the Prince” (Canticles vii. 1) now that you are bringing to the cities of Judah their salvation! The Angels escort you, your faithful Joseph lavishes his love upon you, Heaven delights in you, and our Earth thrills with joy to bear thus upon itself its Creator and its Queen. Go forward, O Mother of God and Mother of Men! Speed thee, thou Propitiatory that holds within you the divine Manna which gives us life! Our hearts are with you, and count your steps. Like your royal ancestor David, we will enter not into the dwelling of our house, nor go up into the bed whereon we lie, nor give sleep to our eyes, nor rest to our temples, until we have found a place in our hearts for the Lord whom you bear, a tabernacle for this God of Jacob” (Psalm cxxxi. 3, 4, 5). Come, then, O Root of Jesse! Thus hid in this Ark of purity, you will soon appear before your people as the standard round which all that would conquer must rally. Then, their enemies, the Kings of the world, will be silenced, and the nations will offer you their prayers. Hasten your coming, dear Jesus! Come and conquer all our enemies, and deliver us.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria in Egypt, blessed Nemesius, martyr, who was first denounced before the judge as a robber, but on being freed from that charge, was soon after, in the persecution of Decius, accused before the judge Emilian of being a Christian. By him he was twice subjected to the torture, and condemned to be burned alive with robbers, thus bearing a resemblance to Our Saviour who was crucified with thieves.

At Nicaea, the Saints Darius, Zosimus, Paul and Secundus, martyrs.

At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Cyriacus, Paulillus, Secundus, Anastasius, Sindimius and their companions.

In Mauritania (Barbary), St. Timothy, deacon, who, after enduring a painful imprisonment for the faith of Christ, was cast into the fire, where he consummated his martyrdom.

At Gaza in Palestine, the martyrdom of the Saints Meuris and Thea.

At Avignon, blessed Pope Urban V, who deserved well of the Church by restoring the Apostolic See to Rome, by bringing about a reunion of the Latins and Greeks, and by suppressing heretics. Blessed Pius IX approved and confirmed the veneration which had long been paid to him.

At Auxerre, St. Gregory, bishop and confessor.

At Orleans, St. Adjutus, an abbot renowned for the spirit of prophecy.

At Rome, St. Fausta, mother of St. Anastasia, distinguished for noble birth and piety.

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

Thanks be to God.

18 DECEMBER – SECOND GREAT ANTIPHON

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the flaming bush, and gaves him the law on Sinai: come and redeem us by thy outstretched arm.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

O Sovereign Lord! O Adonai! come and redeem us, not by your power, but by your humility. Heretofore, you showed yourself to Moses your servant in the midst of a mysterious flame. You gave your law to your people amid thunder and lightning. Now, on the contrary, you come not to terrify, but to save us. Your chaste Mother having heard the Emperor’s edict which obliges her and Joseph her Spouse to repair to Bethlehem, she prepares everything needed for your divine birth. She prepares for you, O Sun of Justice! the humble swathing-bands with which to cover your nakedness, and protect you, the Creator of the world, from the cold of that midnight hour of your Nativity! Thus it is that you will to deliver us from the slavery of our pride and show man that your divine arm is never stronger than when he thinks it powerless and still. Everything is prepared, then, dear Jesus! Your swathing-bands are ready for your infant limbs! Come to Bethlehem and redeem us from the hands of our enemies.

17 DECEMBER – EMBER WEDNESDAY IN ADVENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

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.

17 DECEMBER – THE GREATER ANTIPHONS

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church enters today on the seven days which precede the Vigil of Christmas and which are known in the Liturgy under the name of the Greater Ferias. The ordinary of the Advent Office becomes more solemn. The Antiphons of the Psalms, both for Lauds and the Hours of the day, are proper and allude expressly to the great Coming. Every day at Vespers is sung a solemn Antiphon which consists of a fervent prayer to the Messiah, whom it addresses by one of the titles given Him by the sacred Scriptures.

In the Roman Church, there are seven of these Antiphons, one for each of the Greater Ferias. They are commonly called the O’s of Advent, because they all begin with that interjection. In other Churches during the Middle Ages two more were added to these seven: one to our Blessed Lady, O Virgo Virginum, and the other to the Angel Gabriel, O Gabriel, or to Saint Thomas the Apostle, whose feast comes during the Greater Ferias. It began O Thoma Didyme.There were even Churches where twelve Great Antiphons were sung. That is, besides the nine we have just mentioned, there was O Rex Pacifice to our Lord, O Mundi Domino, to our Lady, and O Hierusalem to the city of the people of God.

The canonical Hour of Vespers has been selected as the most appropriate time for this solemn supplication to our Saviour because, as the Church sings in one of her hymns, it was in the Evening of the world (vergente mundi vespere) that the Messiah came among us. These Antiphons are sung at the Magnificat to show us that the Saviour whom we expect is to come to us by Mary. They are sung twice. Once before and once after the Canticle, as on Double Feasts, and this to show their great solemnity. In some Churches it was formerly the practice to sing them thrice. That is, before the Canticle, before the Gloria Patri, and after the Sicut erat. Lastly, these admirable Antiphons, which contain the whole pith of the Advent Liturgy, are accompanied by a chant replete with melodious gravity, and by ceremonies of great expressiveness, though, in these latter, there is no uniform practice followed. Let us enter into the spirit of the Church. Let us reflect on the great day which is coming that thus we may take our share in these the last and most earnest solicitations of the Church imploring her Spouse to come, and to which He at length yields.

FIRST ANTIPHON

O Wisdom, that proceeds from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end, disposing all things with strength and sweetness! Come and teach us the way of prudence.

****

O Uncreated Wisdom! that is so soon to make yourself visible to your creatures, truly you dispose all things. It is by your permission that the Emperor Augustus issues a decree ordering the enrolment of the whole world. Each citizen of the vast Empire is to have his name enrolled in the city of his birth. This prince has no other object in this order which sets the world in motion, but his own ambition. Men go to and fro by millions, and an unbroken procession traverses the immense Roman world. Men think they are doing the bidding of man, and it is God whom they are obeying. This world-wide agitation has really but one object. It is to bring to Bethlehem a man and woman who live at Nazareth in Galilee in order that this woman, who is unknown to the world but dear to Heaven, and is at the close of the ninth month since she conceived her child, may give birth to this child in Bethlehem, for the Prophet has said of him: “His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity. And you, O Bethlehem! are not the least among the thousand cities of Judah, for out of you He will come” (Micheas v. 2; Matthew ii. 6). O divine Wisdom! how strong are you in thus reaching your ends by means which are infallible though hidden! And yet, how sweet, offering no constraint to man’s free will! and withal, how fatherly in providing for our necessities! You choose Bethlehem for your birth place because Bethlehem signifies the House of Bread. In this you teach us that you are our Bread, the nourishment and support of our life. With God as our food, we cannot die. O Wisdom of the Father, Living Bread that has descended from Heaven, come speedily into us, that thus we may approach to you and be enlightened by your light (Psalm xxxiii. 6), and by that prudence which leads to salvation.

16 DECEMBER – SAINT EUSEBIUS OF VERCELLI (Bishop and Martyr)

Eusebius, a Sardinian, was a Lector in the Church at Rome, and afterwards Bishop of Vercelli. It may well be said that it was God Himself who chose him to be the pastor of this Church, for the Electors who had never before seen him, no sooner set their eyes on him than they preferred him before all their fellow-citizens. And this instantly, and as soon as they first saw him. Eusebius was the first of the Bishops in the Western Church who established Monks in his Church to exercise the functions of the Clergy. He did it in order that he might thus unite, in the same persons, the detachment from riches and the dignity of Levites.

It was during this time that the impious doctrines of the Arians were devastating the whole of the West, and so vigorously did Eusebius attack them that Pope Liberius’ greatest consolation was the unflinching faith of this holy man. It was on this account that the same Pope, knowing that the Spirit of God burned in Eusebius’ soul, commissioned him to go, accompanied by his Legates, to the Emperor, and plead the cause of the true Faith. Eusebius and the Legates having come before Constantius, the Saint pleaded so powerfully that the Emperor granted that a council of the Bishops should be convened. That Council was held the following year at Milan. Eusebius was invited by Constantius to be present at it, which was what the Legates of Liberius had desired and begged.

So far was he from being duped by the synagogue of the malicious Arians to side with them against Saint Athanasius that he openly declared from the first that several of those present were known to him to be heretics, and he therefore proposed that they should subscribe to the Nicene Creed before proceeding any further. This the Arians, infuriated with anger, refused to do. He then not only refused to subscribe to what was drawn up against Athanasius, but he also, by a most ingenious device, succeeded in having the name of Saint Denis the Martyr blotted out from the decree, which the craft of the Arians had induced him to sign. Wherefore, they being exceeding angry against Eusebius, loaded him with injuries and had him sent into banishment.

The holy man, on his side, shaking off the dust from his feet, caring little either for the threats of the Emperor or the sword which was held over him, submitted to banishment as to something which belonged to his episcopal office. Being sent to Scythopolis, he there endured hunger, thirst, blows, and sundry other punishments. He generously despised his life for the true faith, feared not death and gave up his body to the executioners. How much he had to put up with from the cruelty and insolence of the Arians, we learn from the admirable letters full of energy, piety and religion which he addressed from Scythopolis to the clergy and people of Vercelli, and to other persons of the neighbouring country. It is evident from these letters that the heretics were unable, either by their threats or by their inhuman treatment, to shake his constancy or induce him by the craft of their flattery or arguments to join their party.

From there he was taken into Cappadocia and lastly into Thebais of Upper Egypt, in punishment of his refusing to yield. Thus did he suffer the hardships of exile until the death of Constantius, after which he was allowed to return to his flock. But this he would not do until he had assisted at the Council which was being held at Alexandria for the purpose of repairing the injuries done by heresy. This done, he travelled through the provinces of the East, endeavouring, like a clever physician, to restore to perfect health such as were weak in the faith by instructing them in the doctrine of the Church. Animated by the like zeal for the salvation of souls, he passed over into Illyricum, and having at length returned to Italy, that country put off its mourning. He there published the commentaries of Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea on the Psalms which he translated from the Greek into Latin with such corrections as were needed.

At length, having rendered himself celebrated by a life spent in such actions as these, he died at Vercelli in the reign of Valentinian and Valens, and went to receive the immortal crown of glory which his so many and great sufferings had merited for him.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

When asked to tell the names of the Saints who were foremost in defending the dogma of the Incarnation, we think at once of the intrepid Eusebius of Vercelli as one of the glorious number. The Catholic faith, which was so violently attacked in the fourth century by the Arian heresy, was maintained at that time by the labours and zeal of four Sovereign Pontiffs: Sylvester, who confirmed the decrees of the Council of Nicaea; Julius, the supporter of Saint Athanasius; Liberius, whose faith failed not and who, when restored to his liberty, confounded the Arians; and, lastly, Damasus, who destroyed the last hopes of the heretics. One of these four Pontiffs appears on our Advent Calendar — Damasus, whose feast we kept but a few days since. The four Popes have for their fellow-combatants in this battle for the Divinity of the Incarnate Word four great Bishops of whom it may be said, that the defence of the dogma of the Consubstantiality of the Son of God was what they lived for, and that to say anathema to them was to say anathema to Christ Himself. All four most powerful in word and work, lights of the Churches of the world, objects of the people’s love and the dauntless witnesses of Jesus. The first and greatest of the four is the Bishop of the second See of Christendom, Saint Athanasius, the Patriarch of Alexandria. The second is Saint Ambrose of Milan, whose feast we kept on the seventh of this month. The third is the glory of Gaul, Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers. The fourth is the ornament of Italy, Saint Eusebius, Bishop ofVercelli, whom we have to honour today. Hilary will come to us during Christmastide and will stand at the Crib of the Word whose Divinity he so bravely confesses. Athanasius will meet us at Easter and help us to celebrate in the triumphant Resurrection, Him whom he proclaimed as God in those dark times when human wisdom hoped to destroy, by a fifty years of peace, that Church which had survived the storm of three centuries of persecution. Saint Eusebius’ place is Advent, and divine Providence has thus chosen him as one of the patrons of the faithful during this mystic season. His powerful prayers will help us to come devoutly to Bethlehem, and see in the child that is lying there the eternal Word of God. So great were the sufferings which Saint Eusebius had to undergo for the Divinity of Jesus, that the Church awards him the honours of a Martyr, although he did not actually shed his blood.

*****

Valiant Soldier of Jesus, Eusebius, Martyr and Pontiff, how much labour and suffering you underwent for the Messiah! And yet they seemed to you to be little in comparison with what is due to this eternal Word of the Father who, out of His pure love, has made Himself the Servant of His own creatures by becoming Man for them in the mystery of the Incarnation. We owe the same debt of gratitude to this divine Saviour. He is born in a stable for our sakes, as He was for yours. Pray, therefore, for us that we may be ever faithful to Him both in war and peace, and that we may resist our temptations and evil inclinations with that same firmness with which we would confess His name before tyrants and persecutors. Obtain for the Bishops of our holy Mother the Church such vigilance that no false doctrines may surprise them, and such courage that no persecution may make them yield. May they be faithful imitators of the divine Pastor who gives His life for His sheep, and may they ever feed the flock entrusted to them in the unity and charity of Jesus Christ.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The young men, Ananias, Azarias and Misael, whose bodies were buried in a cavern at Babylon.

At Ravenna, the holy martyrs Valentine, military officer, Concordius, his son, Navalis, and Agricola, who suffered for Christ in the persecution of Maximian.

At Mola-di-Gaeta in Campania, St. Albina, virgin and martyr, under the emperor Decius (250 AD).

In Africa, many holy virgins, who reached a happy termination of their martyrdom in the persecution of the Vandals under the Arian king Hunneric, by having heavy weights tied to them and burning plates of metal applied to their bodies (482 AD).

At Vienne, blessed Ado, bishop and confessor (875 AD).

At Aberdeen in Scotland, St. Beanus, bishop (111 AD).

At Gaza in Palestine, St. Irenian, bishop (389 AD).

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

Thanks be to God.

16 DECEMBER – TUESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxx. 18‒28

The Lord waits that He may have mercy on you, and therefore will He be exalted sparing you: because the Lord is the God of judgement, blessed are all they that wait for Him. For the people of Sion will dwell in Jerusalem: weeping you will not weep: He will surely have pity on you: at the voice of your cry, as soon as He will hear, He will answer you. And the Lord will give you spare bread and short water: and will not cause your teacher to flee away from your any more, and your eyes will see your teacher. And rain will be given to your seed, wherever you will sow in the land: and the bread of the corn of the land will be most plentiful and fat. The lamb in that day will feed at large in your possession, and your oxen, and the ass-colts, that till the ground, will eat mingled provender as it was winnowed in the floor. And there will be upon every high mountain, and upon every elevated hill, rivers of running waters in the day of the slaughter of many, when the towers will fall. And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord will bind up the wound of his people, and will heal the stroke of their wound. Behold the name of the Lord comes from afar, His wrath burns and is heavy to bear: His lips are filled with indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire. His breath as a torrent overflowing even to the midst of the neck, to destroy the nations to nothing, and the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the people.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

And are we then to weep no more, O Jesus? Happy we! How could we be sad now that you have heard our prayers and our eyes will behold you, our Master and our Teacher? If you yet delay some days longer, it is only that we may have more time to receive what you have made it your glory to give — the mercy and the pardon of our sins. O the happiness of your kingdom! O the richness of our lands, that is, of our souls, when your dew will have fallen on them! O the sweetness of our Bread, which is to be yourself, O Living Bread come down from Heaven! The brightness of the light which you will give us, even on the very day when you will have bound up our wounds! Blessed day, come quickly! And you, dear night, when Mary is to give her divine babe to us, when will you come? So great is our hope in this your merciful Coming that we listen with less dread to the awful words of your Prophet who, with a rapidity swift as your own word, passes over the long ages between the two events, and speaks to us of the approach of the terrible day when you will come suddenly in your burning wrath, with your lips filled with indignation, and your tongue as a devouring fire. Our present feeling is hope, for we are looking forward to that Coming in which you are the beautiful Prince of peace and love, and we cannot but hope. When that last day comes, have mercy on us! But on this day of your amiable visit, permit us to say to you the words of one of your servants: “Yes, dear Jesus, come, come to us! But in swathing-bands, not with your hand raised to punish us: in humility, not in your greatness: in the crib, not in the clouds of Heaven: in the arms of your Mother, not on the Throne of your Majesty: on the colt of the ass, not on the Cherubim to us, and not against us: to save, and not to judge: to visit us in your peace, not to condemn us in your anger. If you come to us thus, O Jesus! it is not from you, but to you, that we will flee” (The Venerable Peter of Celles, First Sermon of Advent).

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Eleutheropolis in Palestine, the holy martyrs Florian, Calanicus and their fifty-eight companions, who were massacred by the Saracens for the faith of Christ in the time of the emperor Heraclius.

At Marseilles in France, blessed Lazarus, bishop, who was raised from the dead by Our Lord, as we read in the Gospel.

At Rome, St. John de Matha, founder of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives. His festival is observed on the eighth of February according to the decree of Pope Innocent XI.

In the monastery of Fulda, the holy abbot Sturmius (779 AD), abbot and apostle of Saxony, who was ranked among the saints by Pope Innocent II in the second Lateran Council.

At Bigarden near Brussels, St. Vivina (1176 AD), virgin, whose eminent sanctity is attested by frequent miracles.

At Constantinople, St. Olympiades (368‒410 AD), widow.

At Andenne, at the Seven Churches, St. Begga, widow, sister of St. Gertrude.

The same day, the translation of St. Ignatius, bishop and martyr, who, the third after the blessed Apostle St. Peter, governed the Church of Antioch. His body was conveyed from Rome, where he had suffered under Trajan, to Antioch, and deposited in the church cemetery beyond the gate of Daphnis. St. John Chrysostom, on that solemn occasion, delivered a discourse to his people. But afterwards his relics were carried back to Rome, and placed with the highest reverence in the church of St. Clement, together with the body of that blessed pope and martyr.

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

Thanks be to God.

15 DECEMBER – MONDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxviii. 16‒18

Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believes, let him not hasten. And I will set judgement in weight, and justice in measure: and hail will overturn the hope of falsehood, and waters will overflow its protection. And your league with death will be abolished, and your covenant with Hell will not stand.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Heavenly Father! You are preparing to set in the foundations of Sion a corner Stone that is tried and solid, and this Stone, which is to give firmness to Sion, which is your Church, this Stone is your Incarnate Son. It was prefigured, as your Apostle assures us (1 Corinthians x. 4) by that Rock of the desert which yielded the abundant and saving stream that quenched the thirst of your people. But now you are about to give us the reality. It has already come down from Heaven, and the hour is fast approaching when you will lay it in the foundations. O sacred Stone, which makes all one and gives solidity to the whole structure! By you it will come to pass that there will be no longer Jew nor Gentile, but all nations will become one family. Men will no more build on sand, nor set up houses which floods and storms may overturn. The Church will rise up from the Stone which God now sets, and, secure on the great foundation, her summit will touch the clouds. With all his weakness, and all his fickleness, man will partake of your immutability, O divine Stone, if he will but lean on you. Woe to him that rejects you, for you have said, and you are the eternal Truth: “Whoever will fall upon that Stone, will be bruised; and upon whomever it will fall, it will grind him to powder” (Matthew xxi. 44). From this twofold evil, you that are chief Corner-stone, deliver us and never permit us to be of the number of those blind men who rejected you. Give us grace ever to honour and love you as the cause of our strength and the one sole origin of our solidity: and since you have communicated this your quality of the Rock to one of your Apostles, and by him to his successors to the end of the world, grant us ever to cling to this Rock, the Holy Roman Church, in union with which all the faithful on the face of the Earth are preparing to celebrate the glorious solemnity of your Coming, precious and tried Stone! You are coming that you may destroy the kingdom of falsehood and break the league which mankind had made with death and Hell.

14 DECEMBER – THIRD (GAUDETE – ROSE) SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Today again the Church is full of joy, and the joy is greater than it was. It is true that her Lord is not come, but she feels that He is nearer than before, and therefore she thinks it just to lessen somewhat the austerity of this penitential season by the innocent cheerfulness of her sacred rites. And first, this Sunday has had the name of Gaudete given to it, from the first word of the Introit. It also is honoured with those impressive exceptions which belong to the fourth Sunday of Lent, called Laetare. The Organ is played at the Mass, the Vestments are Rose-colour, the Deacon resumes the dalmatic and the Sub-Deacon the tunic, and in Cathedral Churches the Bishop assists with the precious mitre. How touching are all these usages, and how admirable this condescension of the Church, with which she so beautifully blends together the unalterable strictness of the dogmas of faith and the graceful poetry of the formulae of her liturgy! Let us enter into her spirit and be glad on this third Sunday of her Advent because our Lord is now so near to us. Tomorrow we will resume our attitude of servants mourning for the absence of their Lord and waiting for Him: for every delay, however short, is painful and makes love sad.

The Station is kept in the Basilica of Saint Peter at the Vatican. This august temple, which contains the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, is the home and refuge of all the faithful of the world. It is but natural that it should be chosen to be witness both of the joy and the sadness of the Church. O Holy Roman Church, City of our Strength! Behold us your children assembled within your walls around the tomb of the Fisherman, the Prince of the Apostles, whose sacred relics protect you from their earthly shrine, and whose unchanging teaching enlightens you from Heaven. Yet, City of strength, it is by the Saviour who is coming that you are strong. He is your wall, for it is He that encircles with His tender mercy all your children. He is your bulwark, for it is by Him that you are invincible, and that all the powers of Hell are powerless to prevail against you. Open wide your gates that all nations may enter you, for you are mistress of holiness and the guardian of truth. May the old error, which sets itself against the faith, soon disappear and peace reign over the whole fold! O Holy Roman Church! You have forever put your trust in the Lord and He, faithful to His promise, has humbled before you the haughty ones that defied you, and the proud cities that were against you. Where now are the Caesars who boasted that they had drowned you in your own blood? Where the Emperors who would ravish the inviolate virginity of your faith? Where the Heretics who during the past centuries of your existence, have assailed every article of your teaching, and denied what they listed? Where the ungrateful Princes, who would fain make a slave of you, who had made them what they were? Where that Empire of Mahomet, which has so many times raged against you, for that you, the defenceless State, did arrest the pride of its conquests? Where the Reformers, who were bent on giving the world a Christianity in which you were to have no part? Where the more modern Sophists, in whose philosophy you were set down as a system that had been tried, and was a failure, and is now a ruin? And those Kings who are acting the tyrant over you, and those people that will have liberty independently and at the risk of truth, where will they be in another hundred years? Gone and forgotten as the noisy anger of a torrent, whilst you, holy Church of Rome, built on the immovable rock, will be as calm, as young, as unwrinkled as ever. Your path through all the ages of this world’s duration will be right as that of the just man. You will ever be the self-same unchanging Church, as you have been during the [two thousand] years past, while everything else under the sun has been but change. Whence this your stability, but from Him who is very Truth and Justice? Glory be to Him in you! Each year He visits you. Each year He he brings you new gifts with which you may go happily through your pilgrimage, and to the end of time He will visit you and renew you, not only with the power of that look with which Peter was renewed, but by filling you with Himself, as He did the ever glorious Virgin who is the object of your most tender love, after that which you bear to Jesus Himself. We pray with you, O Church, our Mother, and here is our prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus! Your name and your remembrance are the desire of our souls: they have desired you in the night, yea, and early in the morning have they watched for you!”

Epistle – Philippians iv. 4‒7

Brethren, rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men, for the Lord is near. Be nothing solicitous; but in everything by prayer let your petitions be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Nothing is more just than that we rejoice in the Lord. Both the Prophet and the Apostle excite us to desire the Saviour: both of them promise us Peace. Therefore, let us not be solicitous: The Lord is near. Near to His Church, and near to each of our souls. Who can be near so burning a fire and yet be cold? Do we not feel that He is coming to us in spite of all obstacles? He will let nothing be a barrier between Himself and us, neither His own infinite high majesty, nor our exceeding lowliness, nor our many sins. Yet a little while, and He will be with us. Let us go out to meet Him by these prayers, and supplications, and thanksgiving which the Apostle recommends to us. Let our zeal to unite ourselves with our holy mother the Church become more than ever fervent: now every day her prayers will increase in intense earnestness, and her longings after Him, who is her light and her love, will grow more ardent.

Gospel – John i. 19‒28

At that time the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to John, to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed, and did not deny; and he confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” and he said,” I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” and he answered, “No.” They said therefore to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What say you of yourself ?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.” And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him, “Why then do you baptise, if you are not Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, saying, “I baptise with water; but there has stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not; the same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose.” These things were done in Bethania beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“There has stood One in the midst of you, whom you know not,” says Saint John the Baptist to them that were sent by the Jews. So that our Lord may be near, He may even have come, and yet by some be not known! This Lamb of God is the holy Precursor’s consolation: he considers it a singular privilege to be but the Voice which cries out to men to prepare the way of the Redeemer. In this Saint John is the type of the Church, and of all such as seek Jesus. Saint John is full of joy because the Saviour is come: but the men around him are as indifferent as though they neither expected nor wanted a Saviour. This is the third week of Advent, and are all hearts excited by the great tidings told them by the Church that the Messiah is near at hand. They who love Him not as their Saviour, do they fear Him as their Judge? Are the crooked ways being made straight? Are the hills being brought low? Are Christians seriously engaged in removing from their hearts the love of riches and the love of sensual pleasures? There is no time to lose: the Lord is near! If these lines should come under the eye of any of those Christians who are in this state of sinful indifference, we would conjure them to shake off their lethargy and render themselves worthy of the visit of the divine Infant: such a visit will bring them the greatest consolation here, and give them confidence hereafter, when our Lord will come to judge all mankind. Send your grace, O Jesus, still more plentifully into their hearts. compel them to go in, and permit not that it be said of the children of the Church, as Saint John said of the Synagogue: “There stands in the midst of you One, whom you know not.”

13 DECEMBER – SAINT ODILIA (Abbess and Virgin)

 

 

Odilia, the glory and the protectress of her country, was the eldest child of Adalric, Duke of Alsace, and of Beresind his wife. Being born blind she was repudiated by her father, but the mother, with more compassion, had her nursed privately. Later on she was sent to the Monastery of Baume not far from Besancon where she was educated and instructed in the holy Scriptures, and grew in age and wisdom. When an adult, she was baptised by the holy Bishop Erhard, and was on that occasion miraculously cured of her blindness. After the lapse of some years, she was recalled to her father’s house and became the object of his affection. During this time she despised all that the world loves, preferring poverty to the greatest wealth and leading a hermit’s life amid all the distractions of her father’s palace. She rejected with great resolution all the offers of marriage which were made to her, and after a long and hard contest, obtained her father’s consent to devote herself forever to God, with several other virgins. For this end, Adalric built at his own cost a church and monastery on the top of a high hill, and richly endowed it with land and possessions. It was at his request that Odilia was appointed to govern the monastery. Scarce was this abode of sanctity established when many sought for admission and, as it is related, the community numbered no less than a 130. At the commencement no special rule was followed. The imitation of Odilia was their rule. When afterwards it was deliberated on which of the two rules should be adopted, the Monastic or the Canonical, this latter was preferred by the discreet Abbess as being better adapted to the circumstances of the place.

To all around her she was indulgent: to herself alone she was severe. Her only food was barley-bread and water, to which she sometimes added a few herbs. Her contemplation of divine things was continual. She gave to it the greatest part of the night and spent the rest in sleep. Her bed was a rough skin and a stone her pillow. To this she added a maternal solicitude for the poor and sick, for whom she built another monastery and also a large hospital at the foot of the hill, that so they might have readier assistance in their various miseries. She placed there several of the nuns to take care of the poor inmates. Not only so, but she every day visited them herself, fed them, and comforted them, and hesitated not to dress with her own hands the loathsome sores of lepers. At length, weighed down by age and merit, and knowing that her death was at hand, she assembled her sisters in the oratory of Saint John the Baptist and there exhorted them to continue firm to their holy engagements, and never to leave the narrow path which leads to heaven. Having received in the same place the Viaticum of the Body and Blood of Christ, she departed this life on the Ides of December (Dec. 13), and according to the more probable opinion, in 1720. The body of the holy virgin was buried in the same oratory, and her tomb became immediately an object of the greatest veneration of the faithful, and was celebrated for the miracles which were wrought there.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

On this same day we have also the fifth of the Wise Virgins whose bright lamps light us during Advent to the crib of Jesus, their Spouse. Odilia did not shed her blood for Him, as did Bibiana, Barbara, Eulalia and Lucy. Her offering was her tears and her love. Her wreath of lilies blends sweetly with the roses which form the crowns of her four companions. Her name is held in special veneration in the east of France, and beyond the Rhine. The holy hill on which her tomb has rested now these thousand years is still visited by numerous and devout pilgrims. Several Kings of the Capetian race, and several Emperors of the House of Hapsburg, were descendants of the father of our Saint, Adalric or Atticus, Duke of Alsace. Odilia was born blind. Her father insisted on her being removed from the house, for her presence would have been a continual humiliation to him. It seems as though this affliction was permitted by Providence in order that the action and power of divine grace might be the more clearly manifested in her regard. The little exile was taken from her mother and placed in a monastery. God, who designed to show the virtue of the holy sacrament of regeneration, permitted that her baptism should be deferred until she had reached her thirteenth year. The time at length came for Odilia to be made a Child of God. No sooner was she taken from the baptismal font than she recovered her eye-sight, which was but a feeble figure of the light which faith had lit up in her soul. This prodigy restored Odilia to her father and to the world, and from that time forward she had to defend, against unceasing attacks, the virginity which she had vowed to God. Her personal beaut, and her father’s wealth and power attracted to her many rich suitors. She refused them all, and her father himself built a Monastery on the rocks of Hohenburg where she served her divine Lord, governed a large community, and gave relief to every sort of suffering.

After a long life spent in prayer, penance and works of mercy, the day came which was to reward her for it all. It was this very day, the thirteenth of December, the feast of the holy virgin Lucy. The Sisters of Hohenburg, desirous of treasuring up her last words, assembled round their saintly Abbess. She was in an ecstasy, and already dead to the things of this life. Fearing lest she should die before she had received that holy Viaticum which leads the soul to Him who is her last end, the Sisters thought it their duty to rouse her from the mystic sleep which, so it seemed to them, rendered her forgetful of the duties which she had to perform. Being thus brought to herself, she turned to the community and said to them: “Dear Sisters, why have you disturbed me? Why would you again oblige me to feel the weight of this corruptible body when I had once left it? By the favour of His divine Majesty, I was in the company of the virgin Lucy, and the delights I was enjoying were so great that no tongue could tell them, nor ear hear them, nor human eye see them.” No time was lost in giving her the Bread of life and the Chalice of salvation, which having received, she immediately rejoined her heavenly companion, and the thirteenth day of December thus united into one the feasts of the Abbess of Hohenburg and of the Martyr of Syracuse.

*****

The ways of God in your regard, holy Virgin, were admirable indeed, and He manifested in you the riches and the power of grace. He deprived you of sight so that your soul might the more eagerly cling to His own infinite beauty, and when afterwards He restored you your bodily vision, you had already made choice of the better part. The harshness of your father deprived you of the innocent pleasures of home, but it prepared you to become the spiritual mother of so many noble virgins who, following your example, trampled on all the vanities of the world. You chose a life of humility because your heavenly Spouse Jesus had humbled Himself for our sakes. You imitated Him also in His being our divine Deliverer and taking upon Himself all our miseries, for you had the tenderest compassion on the poor and the sick. You took on yourself the care of a poor leper that had been abandoned by all else. With a mother’s courage you fed him and affectionately dressed his loathsome sores. And is it not this that our Jesus is coming down from Heaven to do for us, to heal our wounds by embracing our human nature, and to nourish us with that food which He is preparing to give us at Bethlehem? While the leper was receiving your loving care, the frightful disease which excluded him from the society of his fellow-creatures suddenly disappeared. A delicious odour came from his whole person, whereas before none but a saint like yourself could have borne to approach him. Is it not this which Jesus is coming down to do for us? The leprosy of sin was upon us. His grace heals us, and man regenerated sheds around him the good odour of Christ (2 Corinthians ii. 14, 15).

In the midst of the joys which you are now sharing with Lucy, remember us, you that was ever so compassionate to the needy! We cannot forget the tears which you shed and the prayers you offered up for the soul of your father after his death, and by which you delivered him from Purgatory and opened the gates of Heaven to him that had banished you from his house. You are no longer in the land of tears, but your eyes are opened to the light of Heaven and contemplate God in His glory. Pray therefore for us, for your prayers are now more powerful than heretofore. Think of us who are poor and infirm. Obtain the cure of our maladies. The Emmanuel who is coming to us tells us that He is the Physician of our souls, for He has said: “They that are in health need not the Physician, but they that are ill” (Matthew ix. 12). Ask Him that He cure us of the leprosy of sin, and make us become like Himself. Pray for France, your country, and help her to maintain the purity of the Catholic faith. Watch over the ruins of the Holy Empire. Heresy has disunited the members of that great body, but it will once more flourish if our Lord, propitiated by such prayers as yours, vouchsafe to bring Germany back again to the true faith and to submission to the Church. Yes, pray that these glorious things be brought about for the honour and glory of your Divine Spouse, and that nations now weary of their errors and disunion, may unite together in propagating the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Armenia, the martyrdom of the holy martyrs Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius and Orestes, in the persecution of Diocletian. Eustratius was first subjected alone to barbarous torments under Lysias. Then he was conducted to Sebaste, where he was tortured together with Orestes under the governor Agricolaus, and being cast into a furnace, yielded up his soul. But Orestes being laid on a bed of red-hot iron, rendered his soul to God. The others were made to endure most grievous torments among the Arabraci, under the governor Lysias, and consummated their martyrdom in different manners. Their relics were afterwards carried to Rome, and placed with due honours in the church of St. Apollinaris.

Near Sardinia, on the island of Solta, the martyrdom of St. Antiochus under the emperor Hadrian.

At Cambrai in France, St. Aubertus, bishop and confessor (669 AD).

In Ponthieu, St. Judocus, confessor (669 AD).

At Moulins in France, the birthday of St. Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal (1572‒1641), foundress of the nuns of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, distinguished by the nobility of her birth, by the holiness she constantly manifested in four different states of life, and by the gift of miracles. She was placed among the saints by Pope Clement XIII. Her sacred body was conveyed to Annecy in Savoy, and interred with great pomp in the first church of her Order. By the command of Pope Clement XIV her festival is kept by the whole Church on the twenty-first of August.

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

Thanks be to God.

13 DECEMBER – SATURDAY IN 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!”

12 DECEMBER – OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

 

The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a Mexican farmer, Juan Diego, on the 9th of December 1531 at a place called the Hill of Tepeyac, which would become part of Villa de Guadalupe, a suburb of Mexico City. Speaking in his native language, she identified herself as the Mother of God and asked for a church in her honour to be built there. In subsequent apparitions she confirmed her identity and by her intercession his uncle Juan Bernardino, near death, recovered his health. She asked Juan Diego to collect flowers from the top of the hill, which was usually barren, particularly in December. Juan found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, flowering there. He arranged flowers in his tilma (cloak) and when opened his cloak before Archbishop Zumárraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and on the fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Juan Diego was canonised by Saint John Paul II in 2002 under the name Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us contemplate the sentiments of profound respect and maternal tenderness which fill the soul of our Blessed Lady now that she has conceived Jesus in her chaste womb: he is her God, and yet he is her Son. Let us think upon this wonderful dignity bestowed on a creature, and let us honour the Mother of our God. It was by this mystery that was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias: “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son” (Isaias vii. 14) and that of Jeremias: “The Lord has created a new thing upon the Earth: a woman shall compass a man” (Jeremias xxxi. 22). The Gentiles themselves had received the tradition of these prophecies.

Thus in the old pagan Carnutum (Chartres), there was an altar dedicated “To the Virgin that was to bring forth a Son” (Virgini Parituroae), and while modern rationalism with its ignorant scepticism was affecting to throw a doubt on this fact of history, the researches of science were discovering that Carnutum was far from being the only city of the West which had such an altar. But what human language could express the dignity of our Lady that carries within her chaste womb Him that is the world’s salvation! If Moses, after a mere colloquy with God, returned to the Israelites with the rays of the majesty of Jehovah encircling his head — what an aureola of glory was due to Mary who has within her, as in a living Heaven, that very God Himself ! The Divine Wisdom tempers the effulgence of her glory that it be not visible to men, and this in order that the state of humility, which the Son of God has chosen as the one in which He would manifest Himself to the world, should not be removed at the very onset by the dazzling glory which would otherwise have been seen gleaming from His Mother.

The sentiments which filled the Heart of Mary during these months of her ineffable union with the Divine Word may be thus expressed in the words of the Spouse in the sacred Canticle: “I sat under the shadow of him whom I desired, and his fruit was sweet to my palate. I sleep, but my heart watches. My soul melted when he spoke. I to my Beloved and my Beloved to me, who feeds among the Lilies, till the day break, and the shadows retire” (Canticles ii. 3, 16, 17; v. 2, 6). And if there ever were a human heart that was forced by the overpowering vehemence of its love of God to use these other words of the same Canticle, it was Mary’s: “Daughters of Jerusalem, stay me up with flowers, compass me about with fragrant fruits, for I languish with love” (Canticles ii. 5). These sweet “words,” says the venerable Peter of Celles, “are those of the Spouse that dwells in the gardens and is now near the time of her delivery. What so lovely in creation as this Virgin, who loves the Lord with such matchless love and is so exceedingly loved by this her Lord? It is She of whom the Scripture speaks when it calls the Spouse the dearest hind. What, too, so lovely as that well-beloved Son of God, born of His beloved Father from all eternity, and now, at the end of time, as the Apostle speaks, formed in the womb of His dearest Mother and become to her in the words of the same divine proverb, the sweetest fawn? Let us therefore cull our flowers and offer them to both Child and Mother. But let me briefly tell you what are the flowers you must offer to our Lady. Christ says, speaking of his humanity, I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. By him, therefore, let us purify our souls and bodies, and so be able to approach our God in chastity. Next, preserve this flower of purity from all that would injure it, for flowers are tender things and soon droop and fade. Let us wash our hands among the innocent and, with a pure heart, and pure body, and cleansed lips, and chaste soul, let us gather, in the paradise of our heavenly Father, our fresh flowers for the new Nativity of our New King. With these flowers let us stay up this most saintly Mother, this Virgin of Virgins, this Queen of Queens, this Lady of Ladies that so we may deserve to receive the blessing of the Mother and the Divine Babe.”

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the holy martyr Synesius, who was ordained lector in the time of the blessed Pope Sixtus. Having converted many to Christ, he was accused before the emperor Aurelian, and being put to the sword received the crown of martyrdom.

At Alexandria, in the time of Decius, the holy martyrs Epimachus and Alexander, who were kept in chains a long time, and subjected to various torments. But as they persevered in the faith, they were finally consumed by fire.

In the same place, the holy women Ammonaria, virgin, Mercuria, Dionysia and another Ammonaria. The first named, after having triumphed over unheard-of torments, in the same persecution of Decius, ended her blessed life by the sword. As to the three others, the judge being ashamed to be overcome by women, and fearing that by resorting to tortures, he would be vanquished by their constancy, he ordered them to be beheaded immediately.

The same day, the holy martyrs Hermogenes, Donatus and twenty-two others.

At Treves, the holy martyrs Maxentius, Constantius, Crescentius, Justinus and their companions, who suffered in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Rictiovarus.

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

Thanks be to God.

12 DECEMBER – FRIDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxiv. 1‒15

Behold the Lord will lay waste the Earth, and will strip it: and will afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it will be as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower as with him that calls for his money, so with him that owes. With desolation will the Earth be laid waste, and it will be utterly spoiled: for the Lord has spoken this word. The Earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world faded away, the height of the people of the Earth is weakened. And the Earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore will a curse devour the Earth and the inhabitants thereof will sin, and therefore they that dwell therein will be mad, and few men will be left. The vintage has mourned, the vine has languished away, all the merry hearted have sighed. The mirth of timbrels has ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent. They will not drink wine with a psalm: the drink will be bitter to them that drink it. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no man comes in. There will be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken, the joy of the Earth is gone away. Desolation is felt in the city, and calamity will oppress the gates. For it will be thus in the midst of the Earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives that remain should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended. These will lift up their voice, and will give praise, when the Lord will be glorified, they will make a joyful noise from the sea. Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the Earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thus was the Earth in desolation when the Messiah came to deliver and save it. So diminished, so decayed, were truths among the children of men (Psalm xi. 2) that the human race was bordering on its ruin. The knowledge of the true God was becoming rarer as the world got older. Idolatry had made everything in creation an object of its adulterous worship. The practical result of a religion which was but gross materialism, was frightful immorality. Man was for ever at war with man, and the only safeguards of what social order still existed in the world were the execrable laws of slavery and extermination. Among the countless inhabitants of the globe, a mere handful could be found who were seeking God. They were as rare as the olives that remain on the tree after a careful plucking, or as grape-bunches after the vintage is ended. Of this happy few were among the Jewish people those true Israelites whom our Saviour chose for His disciples and, among the Gentiles, the Magi that came from the East, asking for the new-born King, and later on, Cornelius the Centurion, whom the Angel of the Lord directed to Saint Peter.

But, with what faith and joy did they not acknowledge the Incarnate God! And what their hymns of glad gratitude when they found that they had been privileged above others, to see, with their own eyes, the promised Saviour! Now, all this will again happen when the time draws near of the second Coming of the Messiah. The Earth will once more be filled with desolation and mankind will be again a slave of its self-degradation. The ways of men will again grow corrupt and this time the malice of their evil will be the greater because they will have received Him who is the Light of the world, the Word of Life. A profound sadness will sit heavy on all nations, and every effort for their well-being will seem paralysed. They and the Earth they live on will be conscious of decrepitude, and yet it will never once strike them that the world is drawing to an end. There will be great scandals. There will fall stars from Heaven, that is, many of those who had been masters in Israel will apostatise and their light will be changed into darkness. There will be days of temptation and faith will grow slack, so that when the Son of Man will appear, faith will scarce be found on the Earth.

Let it not be, O Lord, that we live to see those days of temptation. Or, if it be your will that they overtake us, make our hearts firm in their allegiance to your holy Church, which will be the only beacon left to your faithful children in that fierce storm. Grant, O Lord, that we may be of the number of those chosen olives, of those elect bunches of grapes, with which you will complete the rich harvest which you will garner forever into your house. Preserve intact within us the deposit of faith which you have entrusted to us. Let our eye be fixed on that Orient of which the Church speaks to us, and where you are suddenly to appear in thy majesty. When that day of yours comes and we behold your triumph, we will shout our glad delight and then, like eagles which cluster round the body, we will be taken up to meet you in the air, as your Apostle speaks, and thus will we forever be with you (1 Thessalonians iv. 16). Then we will hear the praises and glory of the Just One, from the ends of this Earth, which it is your good will to preserve until the decrees of your mercy and justice will have been fully executed. Jesus! We are the work of your hands: save us and be merciful to us on that great day.

11 DECEMBER – SAINT DAMASUS I (Pope and Confessor)

 

Damasus was a Spaniard, a man of highest worth and learned in the Scriptures. He called the first Council of Constantinople in which he condemned the heresy of Eunomius and Macedonius. He also condemned the Council of Rimini which had already been rejected by Liberius inasmuch as it was in this assembly of Rimini, as Saint Jerome tells us, that mainly by the craft of Valens and Ursascius, was published a condemnation of the faith which had been taught by the Nicene Council, and thus the whole world grieved to find itself made Arian.

He built two Basilicas: one dedicated to Saint Laurence near Pompey’s theatre, and this he endowed with magnificent presents, with houses and with lands: the other, on the Via Ardeatina, at the Catacombs. The bodies of Saints Peter and Paul lay for some time in a place richly adorned with marbles. This place he dedicated, and composed for it several inscriptions in beautiful verses. He also wrote on Virginity, both in prose and verse, and several other poems.

He established the law of retaliation for cases of false accusation. He decreed that, as was the custom in many places, the Psalms should be sung in all churches in alternate choirs, day and night, and that at the end of each Psalm, there should be added: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.” It was by his order that Saint Jerome translated the New Testament from the Greek text. He governed the Church 17 years, 2 months and 25 days, and five times during this period, he gave Ordinations in the month of December to 31 Priests, 11 Deacons and 62 Bishops.

Conspicuous for his virtue, learning and prudence, and having lived little short of 80 years, he slept in the Lord during the reign of Theodosius the Great in 384 AD. He was buried in the Basilica which he had built on the Via Ardeatina, where also lay his mother and sister. His relics were afterwards translated to the Church of Saint Laurence, called after him, Saint Laurence’s in Damaso.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This great Pontiff comes before us in the Liturgical Year, not to bring us tidings of Peace, as Saint Melchiades did, but as one of the most illustrious defenders of the great Mystery of the Incarnation. He defends the faith of the Universal Church in the divinity of the Word by condemning, as his predecessor Liberius had done, the acts and the authors of the celebrated Council of Rimini. With his sovereign authority he bears witness to the teaching of the Church regarding the Humanity of Jesus Christ, and condemned the heretic Apollinaris who taught that Jesus Christ had only assumed the flesh and not the soul of man. He commissioned Saint Jerome to make a new translation of the New Testament from the Greek, for the use of the Church of Rome, here again, giving a further proof of the faith and love which he bore to the Incarnate Word. Let us honour this great Pontiff whom the Council of Chalcedon calls the ornament and support of Rome by his piety. Saint Jerome, too, who looked on Saint Damasus as his friend and patron, calls him a man of the greatest worth, a man whose equal could not be found, well versed in the holy Scriptures and a virgin Doctor of the virgin Church.

  *****

Holy Pontiff Damasus! during your life on Earth, you were the Light which guided the children of the Church, for you taught them the mystery of the Incarnation and guarded them against those perfidious doctrines with which Hell ever strives to corrupt that glorious Symbol of our faith which tells us of God’s infinite mercy towards us, and of the sublime dignity of man thus mercifully redeemed. Seated on the Chair of Peter, you confirmed your brethren and your faith failed not, for Jesus had prayed to His Father for you. We rejoice at the infinite recompense with which this divine Prince of Pastors has rewarded the unsullied purity of your faith, you virgin Doctor of the virgin Church! O that we could have a ray of that light which now enables you to see Jesus in His glory! Pray for us that we may have light to see Him, and know Him, and love Him under the humble guise in which He is so soon to appear to us. Obtain for us the science of the sacred Scriptures in which you were so great a Master, and docility to the teachings of the Bishop of Rome to whom, in the person of Saint Peter, Christ has said: “Launch out into the deep!”

Obtain also for all Christians, you the successor of this Prince of the Apostles, that they be animated with those sentiments which Saint Jerome thus describes in one of his letters addressed to you: “It is the Chair of Peter that I will consult, for from it do I derive that faith which is the food of my soul. I will search for this precious pearl, heeding not the vast expanse of sea and land which I must pass over. Where the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. It is now in the West that the Sun of justice rises. I ask the Victim of salvation from the Priest, and from the Shepherd the protection of the sheep. On that rock I know the Church is built. He that eats the Lamb in any house but this, is profane. He that is not in Noah’s Ark, will perish in the waters of the deluge. I know not Vitalis, I reject Meletius, I pass by Paulinus. He that gathers not with you, Damasus, scatters: for he that is not of Christ, is of Anti-Christ.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Thrason, who was arrested by order of Maximian for devoting his wealth to the support of the Christians who laboured in the baths and at other public works, or were confined in prison. He was crowned with martyrdom with two others, Pontian and Praetextatus.

At Amiens, the holy martyrs Victoricus and Fuscian, under the same emperor. By order of the governor Rictiovarus, they had iron pins driven into their ears and nostrils, heated nails into their temples, and arrows into their whole bodies. Being beheaded with St. Gentian, their host, they went to Our Lord.

In Persia, St. Barsabas, martyr.

In Spain, St. Eutychius, martyr.

At Piacenza, St. Sabinus, a bishop renowned for miracles.

At Constantinople, St. Daniel the Stylite.

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

Thanks be to God.