The Mystery Of Advent (Part Two).

Text taken from The Liturgical Year by Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B.
(Translated from the French by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.)
Advent. Volume 1. St. Bonaventure Publications, www.libers.com
Originally published 1949.
Republished by St. Bonaventure Publications, July 2000.

Illustrations are taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

English: The Adoration of the Shepherds.
Français: L'adoration des bergers.

Artist: Georges de La Tour (1593–1652).

Date: circa 1645.

Current location: Louvre Museum, France. 
Web-Site: www.louvre.fr

(Wikimedia Commons)

As for the third coming, it is most certain that it will be, most uncertain when it will be; for nothing is more certain than death, and nothing less sure than the hour of death.

When they shall say, peace and security, says the Apostle, then shall sudden destruction come upon them, as the pains upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape. So that the first coming was humble and hidden, the second is mysterious and full of love, the third will be majestic and terrible.

In His first coming, Christ was judged by men unjustly; in His second, He renders us just by His grace; in His third, He will judge all things with justice. In His first, a lamb; in His last, a lion; in the one between the two, the tenderest of friends.' [De Adventu. Sermon III. Peter of Blois.]

An Angel with a Lamb, 
as a Symbol of Christ's Sacrifice, 
by Melozzo da Forli, 1482.

Illustration from the Blog, ARS ORANDI

The holy Church, therefore, during Advent, awaits in tears and with ardour the arrival of her Jesus in His first coming. For this, she borrows the fervid expressions of the Prophets, to which she joins her own supplications.

These longings for the Messias, expressed by the Church, are not a mere commemoration of the desires of the ancient Jewish people; they have a reality and efficacy of their own, an influence in the great act of God's munificence, whereby He gave us His own Son.

From all eternity, the prayers of the ancient Jewish people and the prayers of the Christian Church ascended together to the prescient hearing of God; and it was after receiving and granting them, that He sent, in the appointed time, that blessed Dew upon the Earth, which made it bud forth the Saviour.

The Adoration of the Lamb.

From the Ghent Altarpiece, by Jan van Eyck,1429.

Illustration from the Blog, ARS ORANDI

The following is taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

Rorate Coeli (or Rorate Caeli), from the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 45:8), in the Vulgate, are the opening words of a text used in Catholic and, less frequently, Protestant Liturgy. It is also known as The Advent Prose or, by the first words of its English translation, "Drop down ye heavens from above."

It is frequently sung as Plainsong, at Mass, and in the Divine Office, during Advent, where it gives expression to the longings of Patriarchs and Prophets, and, symbolically of the Church, for the coming of the Messiah. Throughout Advent, it occurs daily as the Versicle and Response after the Hymn at Vespers.

“ ℣ Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant justum
(Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just)

℟ Aperiatur terra et germinet salvatorem"
(Let the earth be opened and send forth a Saviour"). ” ]


PART THREE FOLLOWS