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.”
*****
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.
