15 DECEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This, the eighth day from that on which we kept the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, is the Octave properly so called, whereas the other days were simply called days within the Octave. The custom of keeping up the principal Feasts for a whole week is one of those which the Christian Church adopted from the Synagogue. God had thus spoken in the Book of Leviticus: “The first day will be called most solemn and most holy, you must do no servile work therein... The eighth day also will be most solemn and most holy, and you must offer holocausts to the Lord, for it is the day of assembly and congregation; you must do no servile work therein” (Leviticus xxiii. 35, 36). We also read in the Book of Kings that Solomon having called all Israel to Jerusalem, for the dedication of the Temple, suffered not the people to return home until the eighth day. We learn from the Books of the New Testament that this custom was observed in our Saviour’s time, and we find Him authorising, by His own example, this solemnity of the Octave. Thus, we read in Saint John that Jesus once took part in one of the Jewish Festivals, about the midst of the Feast (John vii. 14) of Zachary opened, and He prophesied, saying, and the same Evangelist relating how our Lord cried out to the people: “If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink”: observes, that it was on the last and great day of the festivity (John vii. 37).

In the Christian Church, there are two kinds of Octaves: Privileged Octaves and Non-privileged Octaves. The first are so solemn that no feast of a Saint, occurring during them can be kept, but must be transferred to some other time out of the Octave. Neither, during these Octaves, can a Mass De Requiem be said unless the corpse be present for burial. Non-privileged Octaves admit the Feasts of Saints which occur during them, provided they are semi-doubles or of higher class. But a commemoration of the Octave must be made both in the Office and the Mass of the Feast, which thus takes precedence of the Octave, unless this Feast be itself one of a first or second Class. The Octave of the Immaculate Conception, the first that occurs in the Liturgical Year, is not privileged. It gives place, not only to the Sunday, but also to the feasts of Saint Damasus and Saint Lucy, and to the various local feasts which are of a double or semi-double rite.

Let us once more devoutly reverence the Mystery of Mary’s Immaculate Conception: our Emmanuel loves to see His Mother honoured. After all, is it not for Him and for His sake that this Bright Star was prepared from all eternity, and created when the happy time fixed by the divine decree came? When we honour the Immaculate Conception of Mary, it is really to the divine Mystery of the Incarnation that we are paying our just homage. Jesus and Mary cannot be separated, for Isaias tells us that She is the Branch, and He the Flower (Isaias xi. 1).

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We give you thanks, O Jesus our Emmanuel, because you have granted us to live during the time that the privilege of your Blessed Mother was proclaimed on this Earth: the glorious privilege with which you enriched the first instant of the life of the happy creature from whom you took upon yourself our human nature! This Definition of your Church has given us a clearer knowledge of your infinite holiness. It has taught us to see more distinctly the harmony there is in all your divine mysteries. But it also has impressed upon us the great truth that we ourselves, being destined to the most intimate union with you here, and to the face-to-face vision of your infinite Majesty hereafter, must labour without ceasing to purify ourselves from the smallest stains of sin. You have said: “Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God” (Matthew v. 8) and you show us by the dogma of your Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Conception, what is the purity which your sovereign sanctity demands of us. By the love which led you to preserve her from every stain of sin, have mercy on us who are her devoted children. You are so soon to be among us! Before many days are past, we will have yielded to yourinvitations and have presumed to approach your sacred crib. We are not yet ready, dear Jesus! The effects of original sin are still so plainly upon us, and, what is worse, there are so many of our own sins which we have added to this of our first parent: Oh prepare our hearts and our senses, for we will not approach to Bethlehem unworthily. The sinless purity of your Mother is not for us. We ask not for that , but we ask for forgiveness of our countless sins, for conversion, for hatred of the world and the world’s maxims, and for perseverance in your holy love.

O Mary! Created Mirror of divine Justice and purer than the Cherubim and Seraphim, in return for the homage paid you by this our generation, on that blissful day when the glory of your Immaculate Conception was proclaimed throughout the world, give us that abundant richness of your protecting love which you reserved till now. The world is shaken to its very foundations: your hand can help it to rest again. Hell has let loose upon mankind the most terrible of its spirits of wickedness who breathe but blasphemy and destruction, but at the same time the Church of your Jesus feels that her youth has been renewed within her, and that the seed of the divine word is broadcast and healthy in a thousand fresh portions of the Earth. Never was the battle more fierce on both sides: so that we need all our hope to make us feel that Hell will not prevail. Is this the great struggle which is to be followed by the day of judgement ?

O Blessed Mother of Jesus! O Queen of the universe! Can it be that the Star of your Immaculate Conception has shone in the heavens only to light up the ruin and wreck of this Earth? The sign foretold by the Beloved Disciple Saint John of the Woman that appeared in the heavens clad with the Sun, bearing on her head a crown of twelve stars, and crushing the Crescent beneath her feet (Apocalypse xii. 1) — has it not more brightness and power than that other which appeared in the heavens telling men that God’s anger was appeased, and that the deluge was over?

The light which shines upon us is from a Mother. It is our Mother that comes to console and heal us. It is Heaven that smiles upon poor guilty Earth. We have deserved the chastisement we have received, and more than we have received but the anger of God will give way, and He will spare us. The graces which God poured out upon the world on that great Day of the Church's Definition of Mary’s Immaculate Conception were not to be without their effect: a new period then commenced. Mary, on whom heresy had heaped its blasphemies for [four] hundred years, will again reign in the love of those whom her Son redeemed. Countries will abandon those errors which have made them slaves and dupes of men’s doctrines. The old serpent will again writhe under that crushing pressure which God set up from the beginning, and the divine Sun of Justice will pour out on the regenerated world the floods of a light more than ever dazzling and resplendent. We may not live to see that time but we have signs of its near approach.

It was in the last century that your devout servant whom the Church has placed upon her altars, Leonard of Porto-Maurizio, predicted that when this dogma of your Immaculate Conception should be defined, the world would enjoy a long period of peace. The troubles of the present time in which we are living are, we doubt not, a prelude to that happy peace during which the divine word will traverse the whole world unimpeded, and the Church Militant will reap her harvest for the Church in Heaven. Sweet Mother of our Jesus! The world was also in agitation in those times which preceded the birth of your divine Son, but peace reigned throughout the whole Earth when you gave it its Saviour in Bethlehem. Until that grand time comes when you will show to the world the magnificence of the power which God has given to you, assist us, each year, to prepare for the glorious solemnity of Christmas: pray for us that we may be cleansed from all our sins when that splendid Night comes, during which will be born of you Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Light eternal.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The consecration of St. Eusebius (315‒371 AD), bishop of Vercelli, whose birthday is commemorated on the first of August. His feast is kept on the sixteenth of this month by order of Pope Benedict XIII.

At Rome, the holy martyrs Irenaeus, Anthony, Theodore, Saturninus, Victor and seventeen others, who suffered for Christ in the persecution of Valerian.

In Africa, the martyrdom of the Saints Faustinus, Lucius, Candidus, Caelian, Mark, Januarius and Fortunatus.

In the same country, the holy bishop Valerian, who, being upwards of eighty years old, in the persecution of the Vandals under the Arian king Genseric, was asked to deliver the vessels of the church, and as he constantly refused, an order was issued to drive him all alone out of the city, and all were forbidden to allow him to stay either in their houses or on their land. For a long time he remained lying on the public road, in the open air, and thus, in the confession and defence of the Catholic verity, closed his blessed life.

In the diocese of Orleans, St. Maximinus, confessor.

In Georgia, beyond the Euxine sea, St. Christiana, who, though a slave, was so gifted with the power of working miracles that she converted the inhabitants of that country to the faith of Christ in the time of Constantine.

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

Thanks be to God.

15 DECEMBER – FRIDAY OF 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.

14 DECEMBER – THURSDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xix. 1‒2

The burden of Egypt. Behold the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud: and will enter into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt will be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in the midst thereof: and I will set the Egyptians to fight against the Egyptians, and they will fight brother against brother, and friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Egypt which the Lord is here represented as visiting, and whose idols and empire He will overthrow, is the City of Satan which is to be destroyed and give place to the City of God. But how peaceful is the divine Conqueror’s entrance into His conquest! It is on a cloud, a light cloud, that He comes, as on His triumphal chariot. How many mysteries in these few words! “There are three Clouds,” says Peter of Blois, “the first, the obscurity of the Prophets. The second, the depth of the divine Decrees. The third, the prodigy of a Virgin Mother.” First, as to the obscurity of the Prophets, it is essential to every Prophecy that it be thus veiled, to the end that man’s free will may not be interfered with. But under this cloud the Lord comes at last, and when the day comes for the Prophecy to be accomplished, all things are clear enough. Thus was it with the first Coming, so will it be with the second. Then, as to the Decrees of God, as they are ordinarily made manifest by second, that is, by created causes only— it almost always happens that the extreme simplicity of the means employed by the divine Wisdom takes men by surprise. Never was this so observable as in the grand event of the Incarnation. Men would naturally expect that, in restoring a fallen world, a power equal at least to that which first created it would be displayed, and all they are told about the portent is: “You will find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger!”

O almighty power of God, how dazzling is your light through this Cloud! How strong are you in this apparent weakness! But there is the third Cloud: it is the Virgin Mary. A light cloud, “for,” says Saint Jerome, “neither concupiscence, nor the burden of earthly marriage, weigh upon her.” A Cloud, too, laden with a refreshing Dew, since it holds the Just One who is to be rained down on us that our seething passions may be quenched and the soil of our spiritual life made fertile. How sweet is the majesty of our divine King when seen thus through this beautiful Cloud! O incomparable Virgin! The whole Church of God recognises thee in that mysterious Cloud which the Prophet Elias (3 Kings xviii. 42, 43) from the summit of Mount Carmel, saw rising up from the sea, little, at first, like a man’s foot, but sending at last such a plentiful rain that all Israel was refreshed by its abundance. Delay not, we pray you. Give us that heavenly and divine Dew which you possessed within you. Our sins have made the heavens as brass, and we are parched. You alone of creatures are just and pure! Beseech our Lord, who has set up His Throne of mercy in you, to come speedily and destroy our enemies and bring us peace.

13 DECEMBER – SAINT LUCY OF SYRACUSE (Virgin and Martyr)

Lucy, a virgin of Syracuse, illustrious by birth and by the Christian faith which she had professed from her infancy, went to Catania with her mother Eutychia who was suffering from a flax of blood, there to venerate the body of the blessed Agatha. Having prayed fervently at the tomb, she obtained her mother’s cure by the intercession of Agatha. Lucy then asked her mother that she would permit her to bestow upon the poor of Christ the fortune which she intended to leave her. No sooner, therefore, had she returned to Syracuse, than she sold all that was given to her and distributed the money among the poor. When he to whom her parents had, against her will, promised her in marriage came to know what Lucy had done, he went before the Prefect Paschasius and accused her of being a Christian.

Paschasius entreated and threatened, but could not induce her to worship the idols. The more he strove to shake her faith, the more inflamed were the praises which she uttered in professing its excellence. He said therefore to her: “We will have no more of your words when you feel the blows of my executioners.” To this the virgin replied: “Words can never be wanting to God’ servants, for Christ our Lord has said to them: When you will be brought before kings and governors, take no thought how or what to speak for it will be given to you in that hour what to speak. For it is not you that speaks, but the Holy Spirit that speaks in you.” Paschasius then asked her: “Is the Holy Spirit in you?” She answered: “They who live chastely and piously are the temple of the Holy Spirit.” He said: “I will order you to be taken to a brothel, that this Holy Spirit may leave you.” The Virgin said to him: “The violence with which you threat me would obtain for me a double crown of chastity.”

Paschasius being exceeding angry, ordered Lucy to be dragged to a place where her treasure might be violated but, by the power of God, so firmly was she fixed to the place where she stood that it was impossible to move her. Then the Prefect ordered her to be covered over with pitch, resin and boiling oil, and a fire to be kindled round her. But seeing that the flame was not permitted to hurt her, they tormented her in many cruel ways, and at length ran a sword through her neck. Thus wounded, Lucy foretold the Peace of the Church which would come after the deaths of Diocletian and Maximian, and then died. It was the Ides of December (Dec. 13) in 303 AD. Her body was buried at Syracuse, but was translated first to Constantinople, and afterwards to Venice.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

There comes to us today the fourth of our Wise Virgins, the valiant Martyr Lucy. Her glorious name shines on the sacred Dyptich of the Canon of the Mass together with those of Agatha, Agnes and Caecilia, and as often as we hear it pronounced during these days of Advent, it reminds us (for Lucy signifies Light), that He who consoles the Church, by enlightening her children, is soon to be with us. Lucy is one of the three glories of the Church of Sicily. As Catania is immortalised by Agatha, and Palermo by Rosaly, so is Syracuse by Lucy. Therefore, let us devoutly keep her feast. She will aid us by her prayers during this holy season, and will repay our love by obtaining for us a warmer love of that Jesus whose grace enabled her to conquer the world. Once more let us consider why our Lord has not only given us Apostles, Martyrs and Bishops as guides to us on our road to Bethlehem, but has willed also that we should be accompanied there by such virgins as Lucy. The children of the Church are forcibly reminded by this, that, in approaching the crib of their Sovereign Lord and God, they must bring with them, besides their faith, that purity of mind and body without which no one can come near to God.

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We present ourselves before you, Virgin Martyr, beseeching you to obtain for us that we may recognise in His lowliness that same Jesus whom you now see in His glory. Take us under your powerful patronage. Your name signifies Light. Guide us through the dark night of this life. O fair Light of Virginity! enlighten us. Evil concupiscence has wounded our eyes: pray for us, you bright Light of Virginity, that our blindness be healed, and that rising above created things, we may be able to see that true Light which shines in darkness but which darkness cannot comprehend. Pray for us that our eye may be purified, and may see, in the child who is to be born at Bethlehem, the new Man, the second Adam, the model on which the life of our regeneration must be formed. Pray, too, O holy Virgin, for the Church of Rome and for all those which adopt her form of the Holy Sacrifice, for they daily pronounce at the Altar of God your sweet name, and the Lamb, who is present, loves to hear it. Heap your choicest blessings on the fair Island which was your native land, and where grew the palm of your martyrdom. May your intercession secure to her inhabitants firmness of faith, purity of morals and temporal prosperity, and deliver them from the disorders which threaten her with destruction.

13 DECEMBER – WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xvi. 1‒5

Send forth, O Lord, the Lamb the ruler of the Earth, from Petra of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion. And it will come to pass that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so will the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon. Take council, gather a council, make your shadow as the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about. My fugitives will dwell with you: O Moab, be a covert to them from the face of the destroyer. For the dust is at an end, the wretch is consumed, he has failed that trod the earth under foot. And a throne will be prepared in mercy, and one will sit on it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgement, and quickly rendering that which is just.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Send forth to us, Lord, the Lamb”: “It is the Lamb,” says Peter of Celles, “it is the Lamb we need, and not the Lion. The Lamb that knows no anger and whose meekness is never ruffled, the Lamb that will give us his snow-white wool to warm our coldness and cover our nakedness, the Lamb that will give us his flesh to eat lest we faint with hunger on the way. Send Him full of wisdom, for in His divine prudence He will vanquish the spirit of pride. Send Him full of strength, for it is written that the Lord is strong and mighty in battle. Send Him full of meekness, for He is to come down as dew that falls on the fleece. Send Him as a victim, for He is to be sold and immolated for our ransom. Send Him the pardoner of sinners, for He is come to call them, and not the just. Send Him to receive power and divinity, He that is worthy to loose the seven seals of the sealed book, the unspeakable mystery of the Incarnation.”

You are King, then, O Divine Lamb! You are, even now in your Mother’s womb, the sovereign Ruler. This virginal womb is a throne of mercy on which you are seated in humility, ready to avenge our rights and confound our cruel enemy. O most dear King! Our eyes cannot yet behold you, but our hearts tell us you are near us. We know that it is for our sakes that you have put on this strange royalty. Suffer us to approach you and offer your our homage and loyalty, even now that a cloud hides you from our sight. A few days more, and you will be seated on another throne, your Mother’s arms, and then all the Earth will see the salvation that is sent to it.

12 DECEMBER – TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xiv. 1‒15

Her time is near at hand, and her days will not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger will be joined with them, and will adhere to the house of Jacob. And the people will take them, and bring them into their place: the house of Israel will possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they will make them captives that had taken them, and will subdue their oppressors. And it will come to pass in that day, that when God will give you rest from your labour, and from your vexation, and from the hard bondage, with which you served before, you will take up this parable against the King of Babylon, and will say: “How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute has ceased? The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers, that struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner. How are you fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning? How are you fallen to the Earth, that wounded the nations: and you said in your heart: I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the North: I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But yet you will be brought down to Hell into the depth of the pit.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Your ruin, Lucifer, is irreparable! You refused to humble yourself before God, and you were cast into Hell. Your pride then sought a compensation for this your deep humiliation, and you caused the ruin of the human race out of hatred for God and His creatures. You succeeded in inspiring him who was formed out of dust with that same pride which had caused your own destruction. By you sin came into this world, and by sin death: the human race seemed now a victim which never could escape your vengeance. Forced to give up your hopes of a heavenly royalty, you aimed to reign in Hell and destroy the creatures of God as they came from His creating love. But again you are foiled and conquered. Your reign was in pride. Pride alone could form your court and give you subjects. Now see how the Sovereign Lord of all things uproots your kingdom: He Himself comes to teach His creatures humility, and he teaches it not by laws given with awful majesty as once on Sinai, but by Himself meekly practising that heavenly humility which alone can raise up them that had fallen by pride. Tremble, proud Spirit, your sceptre is to be broken!

In your haughty wisdom, you disdain this humble and lovely Virgin of Nazareth who holds within herself, in adoring silence, the mystery of your ruin and our salvation. The child she carries in her womb and is so soon to be born has long since been the object of your contempt. Know, then, that God does not disdain this unborn child, for this child is also God, and a single act of adoration and devotedness to His Father, which He is making in the womb of Mary, gives more glory to the Divinity than all your pride could rob it of, even were your pride to increase for eternity. Henceforth, men, taught by the lessons of a God the immense power of humility, will have recourse to it as their great remedy. Instead of exalting themselves, as you did, by a mad and guilty pride, they will humble themselves with love and pleasure: the lower they humble themselves, the higher will God raise them: the poorer they own themselves, the richer will He make them. It is the glorious Virgin that tells us this in her exquisite Canticle. May she be ever blessed, Mother so gentle and sweet to her children, and so terrible to you, Lucifer, that writhes beneath her as she crushes and conquers you.

9 DECEMBER – SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias vii. 10‒14

And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God, either to the depth of Hell, or to the height above.” And Achaz said: “I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.” And he said: “Hear ye, therefore, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God also? Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and his name will be called Emmanuel.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let our hearts be filled with hope and joy at hearing this fair and sweet prophecy: “A Virgin will conceive and bear a Son.” These words contain the salvation of the world, as these others express its perdition: “The woman took of the fruit of the tree, and did eat, and gave to her husband.” This Virgin promised to us is at length come: the divine Fruit is in her womb. By her, Eve’s disobedience is repaired, the world is raised from its fall, the head of the serpent is crushed, God Himself is more glorified by the fidelity of this second Virgin than He had been outraged by the disobedience of the first. The consent of Mary exercises an immense influence in the saving of the world. It is true that the Word Himself is coming, “but,” says Saint Bernard, “Mary is the way by which He comes. It is from her virginal womb He issues, as the Bridegroom from the nuptial chamber. Let us endeavour, therefore, to go up to Jesus by Mary, for Jesus came down to us by her. By you, O Blessed one that found Grace, O Parent of Life, Mother of Saltation, may we have access to your Son! May He who was given to us by you, receive us by you. May He admit your purity and, for its sake, forgive our impurities. May He give us the pardon of our pride, because of the pleasure He took in your humility. May your abundant charity cover the multitude of our sins. May your glorious fruitfulness get us fruitfulness of merit. Our Lady! Our Mediatrix! Our Advocate! Reconcile us to your Son, commend us to your Son, present us to your Son. By the grace you found, by the prerogative you merited, by the Mercy you brought forth, grant, O Blessed Virgin, that Jesus who deigned to become, through your maternity, partaker of our weakness and misery, may through your intercession make us partakers of His glory and bliss.”

4 DECEMBER – MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xiii. 1‒11

The burden of Babylon, which Isaias the son of Amos saw. Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates. I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory. The noise of the multitude in the mountains, as it were of many people: the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together. The Lord of hosts has given charge to the troops of war, to them that come from a country afar off, from the end of Heaven: the Lord and the instruments of His wrath, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near, it will come as a destruction from the Lord. Therefore will all hands be faint, and every heart of man will melt, and will be broken. Gripings and pains will take hold of them, they will be in pain as a woman in labour: every one will be amazed at his neighbour, their countenances will be as faces burnt. Behold, the day of the Lord will come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven, and their brightness will not display their light: the sun will be darkened in his rising, and the moon will not shine with her light. And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and bring down the arrogance of the mighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church puts before us again, in the office of today, the terrible spectacle of the last Coming of Jesus Christ. The sinful Babylon, of which Isaias speaks, is the world grown old in its crimes. The cruel day, full of indignation and wrath, is that on which the Messiah will return to judge the world with His Sign glittering in the clouds. The words used by the Prophet to describe the terror of the inhabitants of Babylon are so expressive that it is difficult to meditate on them seriously and not tremble. You, then, who, in this second week of preparation for the Birth of our Saviour are still wavering and undecided as to what you intend to do for the day of His Coming, reflect on the connection that there is between the two Comings. If you receive your Saviour in the first, you need be in no fear for the second. But if you despise the first, the second will be to your destruction, nor will the cries of your despair save you. The Judge will come on a sudden, at midnight, at the very time when you persuade yourself that He is far off from you. Say not, that the end of the world is not yet come, and that the destinies of the human race are not filled up — it is not the world that is here in question, it is you individually. True, the Day of the Lord will be terrible, when this world will be broken up as a vessel of clay and the remnants of creation will be a prey to devouring flames. But long before that day of universal terror your own day of judgement will come. The inexorable Judge will come to you, you will stand before His face, you will have none to defend you, and the sentence He will pass will be eternal. And though the nature of that sentence, whether for or against you, will not be known to the rest of the world until the last and general judgement, still is this His Coming to you, at your own judgement, terrible above measure. Remember, therefore, that what will make the terror of the Last Day so great is, that then will be solemnly and publicly confirmed what was judged irrevocably, though secretly, between your own soul and her Judge, just as the favourable sentence, which the good receive at the happy moment of their death, will be repeated before the immense assembly of men and Angels on the Last Day. Is it wise, then, Christians, to put off your conversion, on the plea of the Day of the Lord not having to come for ages, when it might be “this night that your soul were required of you” (Luke xii. 20). The Lord is coming: lose no time, prepare to meet Him. A humble and contrite and converted heart is sure to find acceptance.

1 DECEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church of Rome does not keep this day as a feast of any Saint. She simply recites the Office of the Feria unless it happen that the first Sunday of Advent fall on this first day of the month, in which case, the Office of that Sunday is celebrated. But should this first day of December be a simple Feria of Advent, we will do well to begin at once our considerations upon the preparations which were made for the merciful Coming of the Saviour of the world. Four thousand years of expectation preceded that Coming, and they are expressed by the four weeks of Advent, which we must spend before we come to the glorious festivity of our Lord’s Nativity. Let us reflect upon the holy impatience of the Saints of the Old Testament, and how they handed down, from age to age, the grand hope which was to be but hope to them since they were not to see it realised.

Let us follow, in thought, the long succession of the witnesses of the promise: Adam, and the first Patriarchs, who lived before the deluge. Then, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs of the Hebrew people. Then Moses, Samuel, David and Solomon. Then, the Prophets and the Maccabees and, at last, John the Baptist and his disciples. These are the holy ancestors of whom the book of Ecclesiasticus speaks,where it says: “Let us praise men of renown, and our fathers in their generation” (Ecclesiasticus xliv. 1), and of whom the Apostle thus speaks to the Hebrews: “All these being approved by the testimony of faith, received not the promise. God providing some better thing for us, that they should not be perfected without us:” their faith was tried and approved, and yet they received not the object of the promises made to them. It was for us that God had reserved the stupendous gift, and therefore did not permit them to attain the object of their desires (Hebrews xi. 39, 40).

Let us honour them for their faith. Let us honour them as our veritable fathers, since it was in reward of their faith that our Lord remembered and fulfilled His merciful promise. Let us honour them, too, as the ancestors of the Messiah in the flesh. We may imagine each of them saying, as he lay on his dying bed, this solemn prayer to Him who alone could conquer death: “I will look for your salvation, O Lord!” It was the exclamation of Jacob, at his last hour, when he was pronouncing his prophetic blessings on his children: “and then,” says the Scripture, “he drew up his feet upon his bed, and died, and he was gathered to his people” (Genesis xlix. 32).

Thus did all these holy men, in quitting this life, go to await, far from the abode of eternal light, Him who was to come in due time and re-open the gate of Heaven. Let us contemplate them in this place of expectation, and give our grateful thanks to God who has brought us to His admirable Light without requiring us to pass through a Limbo of darkness. It is our duty to pray ardently for the Coming of the Deliverer who will break down by His Cross the gates of the prison, and will fill it with the brightness of His glory. During this holy season the Church is continually borrowing the fervent expressions of these Fathers of the Christian people, making them her own prayer for the Messiah to come. Let us turn to those great Saints and beg of them to pray that our work of preparation for Jesus’ coming to our hearts may be blessed by God.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The prophet Nahum, who was buried in Begabar.

At Rome, the holy martyrs Diodorus, priest, and Marian, deacon, with many others, who by the command of the emperor Numerian, were made partakers of the glory of martyrdom.

In the same city, the martyrdom of the saints Lucius, Rogatus, Cassian and Candida.

The same day, St. Ansanus, martyr, who confessed Christ at Rome and was cast into prison in the time of the emperor Diocletian. Being afterwards conducted to Siena in Tuscany, he there ended the course of his martyrdom by decapitation.

At Amelia in Umbria, St. Olympias, ex-consul, who was converted to the faith by blessed Firmina, and being tortured on the rack, consummated his martyrdom under Diocletian.

At Arbele in Persia, St. Ananias, martyr.

At Narni, St. Proculus, bishop and martyr, who after performing many good works, was beheaded by order of Totila, king of the Goths.

At Casale, St. Evasius, bishop and martyr.

At Milan, St. Castritian, bishop, who was eminent for virtues and the practice of pious and religious deeds in very troubled times for the Church.

At Brescia, St. Ursicinus, bishop.

At Noyon, St. Eligius, bishop, whose life is rendered illustrious by a considerable number of miracles.

At Verdun, St. Agericus, bishop.

The same day, St. Natalia, wife of the blessed martyr Adrian, under the emperor Diocletian. For a long time she served the holy martyrs detained in prison at Nicomedia, and when their combats were at an end, she repaired to Constantinople where she went peacefully to her repose in the Lord.

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

Thanks be to God.