"My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord".

This Article can be found on ENLARGING THE HEART at 

http://enlargingtheheart.wordpress.com/

Madonna Adoring the Child with Five Angels, by Sandro Botticelli.

Date: 1485 - 1490.

Source: [1]

Author: w:Botticelli

(Wikimedia Commons)

And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38)….

If a handmaid is she who, with intent and with complete attention, beholds her Lord, then again the Most-Holy Virgin is the first among the handmaids of the Lord.

[...] She did not care to please the world, but only God; nor did she care to justify herself before the world, but only before God. She herself is obedience; she herself is service; she herself is meekness.

The Most-Holy Virgin could in truth say to the angel of God: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord".

The greatest perfection, and the greatest honour that a woman can attain on Earth, is to be a handmaid of the Lord. Eve lost this perfection and honour in Paradise without effort, and the Virgin Mary achieved this perfection and this honour outside Paradise with her efforts.


My soul doth magnify the Lord (Luke 1:46).

Brethren, we have in total only a few words spoken by the Most-Holy Theotokos recorded in the Gospels.

All of her words pertain to the magnification of God. She was silent before men but her soul conversed unceasingly with God. Every day and every hour, she found a new reason and incentive to magnify God.

If only we were able to know and to record all her magnifications of God throughout her whole life, oh, how many books would it take!

But, even by this one magnification, which she spoke before her kinswoman, Elizabeth, the mother of the great Prophet and Forerunner, John, every Christian can evaluate what a fragrant and God-pleasing flower was her most holy soul.

This is but one wonderful canticle of the soul of the Theotokos, which has come down to us through the Gospel. However, such canticles were without number in the course of the life of the Most-Blessed One.

Even before she heard the Gospel from the lips of her Son, she knew how to speak with God and to glorify Him in accordance with the teaching of the Gospel.

This knowledge came to her from the Holy Spirit of God, whose grace constantly poured into her like clear water into a pure vessel.

Her soul magnified God with canticles throughout her whole life, and therefore God magnified her above the Cherubim and the Seraphim.

Likewise, small and sinful as we are, the same Lord will magnify in His Kingdom us who magnify her, if we exert ourselves to fill this brief life with the magnification of God in our deeds, words, thoughts and prayers.

O Most-Holy, Most-Pure and Most-Blessed Theotokos, cover us with the wings of thy prayers.

Nikolai Velimirovich.

Nikolai Velimirovich (1880-1956; Orthodox Church): 

Prologue from Ohrid, December 26th and 27th OS.

Lo ! All things are accomplished, that were said by the Angel, of the Virgin Mary (Antiphon at Lauds).

This Article was taken (in December 2012) from 

ARS ORANDI THE ART AND BEAUTY OF TRADITIONAL CATHOLICISM

The following Text is from

The Liturgical Year, Vol 1; Advent, 23 December,

by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.

O Emmanuel !  King of peace! Thou enterest today the city of Thy predilection, the city in which Thou hast placed Thy temple - Jerusalem. A few years hence the same city will give Thee Thy cross and Thy sepulchre: nay, the day will come on which Thou wilt set up Thy judgement-seat within sight of her walls. 

But today Thou enterest the city of David and Solomon unnoticed and unknown. It lies on Thy road to Bethlehem. Thy blessed Mother and Joseph her spouse would not lose the opportunity of visiting the temple, there to offer to the Lord their prayers and adoration. 

They enter; and then, for the first time, is accomplished the prophecy of Aggeus, that great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first; for this second temple has now standing within it an ark of the Covenant more precious than was that which Moses built; and within this ark, which is Mary, is contained the God whose presence makes her the holiest of sanctuaries. 

The Lawgiver Himself is in this blessed ark, and not merely, as in that of old, the tablet of stone on which the Law was graven. The visit paid, our living ark descends the steps of the temple, and sets out once more for Bethlehem, where other prophecies are to be fulfilled. We adore Thee, O Emmanuel !  in this Thy journey, and we reverence the fidelity wherewith Thou fulfillest all that the prophets have written of Thee; for Thou wouldst give to Thy people the certainty of Thy being the Messias, by showing them that all the marks, whereby He was to be known, are to be found in Thee. And now, the hour is near; all is ready for Thy birth; come then, and save us; come, that Thou mayst not only be called our Emmanuel, but our Jesus, that is, He that saves us.

Ero cras!

"Tomorrow I will Be!"

The Great O Antiphons. 23 December.

Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 

unless otherwise stated.

 Artist: Gerard van Honthorst (1590–1656).

The Adoration of the Shepherds.

Date: 25 December 1622.

Current location: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.

 Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. 

DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. 

Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1] 

(Wikimedia Commons)

 23 December: Isaias vii. 14, xxxiii. 22.

O Emmanuel,

Rex et legifer noster,

exspectatio Gentium,

et Salvator earum:

veni ad salvandum nos,

Domine Deus noster.

O Emmanuel,

our King and Lawgiver,

the expected of the nations 

and their Saviour,

come to save us,

O Lord our God.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."

"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."

The Great O Antiphons. 22 December.

Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

 

Artist: Guido Reni (1575–1642).
Deutsch: Anbetung der Hirten, Detail.
Date: 1630 - 1642.
Current location: Deutsch: Museo di San Martino.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. 

DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. 

Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1]

(Wikimedia Commons)

 22 December:  Aggeus ii. 8;  Ephesians ii. 14, 20.

O Rex Gentium,

et desideratus earum,

lapisque angularis,

qui facis utraque unum:

veni, et salva hominem,

quem de limo formasti.

O King of the Gentiles,

and the desired of them,

Thou cornerstone that makest both one,

come and deliver man,

whom Thou didst form out of 

      the dust of the earth.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."

"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."

The Great O Antiphons. 21 December.

Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 
unless otherwise stated.

Artist: Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510).
Deutsch: Madonna und zwei Engel
English: Madonna and Child with two angels.
Italiano: Madonna con due angeli.
Date: 1468 - 1469.
Current location: Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. 

DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. 

Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
Permission: [1]
(Wikimedia Commons)

 21 December:  Psalm cvi.  10.

O Oriens,

splendor lucis aeternae,

et sol justitiae;

veni et illumina sedentes in tenebris,

et umbra mortis.

O Dawn of the East,

brightness of the light eternal,

and Sun of Justice;

come and enlighten them that sit in darkness,

and in the shadow of death.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."
"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."

The Great O Antiphons. 20 December.

Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 
unless otherwise stated.

English: Workshop of the Della Robbia (early 16th-Century)

Madonna with Child, the Holy Spirit and two cherubims, enamelled terracotta.

Français: Atelier des Della Robbia (début du XVIe siècle.

Vierge à l'Enfant avec le Saint Esprit et deux chérubins, terre cuite émaillée.

Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Accession Number: Campana 32.

Source/Photographer: Jastrow (2006).

(Wikimedia Commons)

20 December: Isaias xxii. 22; Apocalypse iii. 7; Luke i. 79.

O Clavis David,

et sceptrum domus Israel;

qui aperis, et nemo claudit, 

      claudis, et nemo aperit:

veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,

sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Key of David,

and Sceptre of the House of Israel,

who openest and no man shutteth,

who shuttest and no man openeth;

come and bring forth from his prison-house,

the captive that sitteth in darkness and

      in the shadow of death.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."
"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."

The Great O Antiphons. 19 December.

Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated.

Madonna and Child.

Artist: Marianne Stokes (1855 - 1927),

Date: 1907 - 1908.

Current location: Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Museum.

Source/Photographer: Own work, user:Rlbberlin

(Wikimedia Commons)

19 December: Isaias xi. 10.

O Radix Jesse,

qui stas in signum populorum,

super quem continebunt reges os suum,

quem Gentes deprecabuntur:

veni ad liberandum nos,

jam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse,

who standest for an ensign of the people,

before whom kings shall keep silence,

and unto whom the Gentiles shall make their supplication:

come to deliver us, 

and tarry not.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."
"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."

The Great O Antiphons. 18 December.

Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated.

English: Christ is born.

Deutsch: Christi Geburt.

Artist: Lorenzo Lotto (1480–1556).

Date: 1523.

Current location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. 

ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1]

(Wikimedia Commons)

18 December: Exodus iii. 2, xx. 1.

O Adonai,

et dux domus Israel,

qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,

et ei in Sina legem dedisti:

veni ad redimentum nos in brachio extento.

O Adonai,

and Leader of the House of Israel,

who didst appear to Moses in the flame of 

      the burning bush,

and didst give unto him the Law on Sinai:

come and with an outstretched arm redeem us.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."
"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."

The Great O Antiphons. 17 December.

Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated.

Deutsch: Sixtinische Madonna, Szene: Maria mit Christuskind, 

Hl. Papst Sixtus II. und Hl. Barbara

Current location: Gemäldegalerie, Dresden.

Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. 

DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1]

Madonna and Child by Raphael (1483 - 1520).

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Boundless desire for the coming of Christ, which is a feature of the whole of Advent, is expressed in the Liturgy with an impatience which grows greater, the closer we come to Christmas and, so to speak, to the world's end.

"The Lord comes from far" (First Vespers, First Sunday of Advent).
"The Lord will come" (Introit, Second Sunday of Advent).
"The Lord is nigh" (Introit. Third Sunday in Advent).

This gradation will be emphasised throughout the whole Season, ever more and more.

Thus, on 17 December, begin the Greater Antiphons, which, from their initial letters, are called the "O Antiphons", and which form an impassioned appeal to the Messias, whose prerogatives and glorious titles they make known to us.

Dom Gueranger [Editor: He who was the author of "The Liturgical Year"] affirms that those Antiphons contain the "whole marrow" of the Advent Liturgy.

On account of their number, Honorius of Autun connects them with The Seven Gifts of The Holy Ghost, with which Our Lord was filled.



17 December: Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 5; Wisdom viii. 1

O Sapientia, 
quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem,
fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

O Wisdom,
who camest out of the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from end to end and ordering all things
      mightily and sweetly:
come and teach us the way of prudence.

V. Rorate.

"Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justium . . ."
"Ye heavens, drop down from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One."

The Commencement Of The Church's Great O Antiphons Begins, Tomorrow, 17 December.

Text and Illustrations are taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

"Sapientia".

Picture: From Codex Gigas.

Date: 13th-Century.

Source: Web of The Royal Library, National Library of Sweden 

(Full page image), cropped for usage here.

Author: Benedictine monastery of Podlažice.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The O Antiphons are Magnificat Antiphons used at Vespers on the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions.

Each Antiphon is a name of Christ, one of his attributes mentioned in Scripture.

They are:

December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Dayspring)
December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)

In the Roman Catholic tradition in which they originated, the O Antiphons are sung or recited at Vespers from 17 December to 23 December, inclusive (but see note, below, on alternative English usage).

In the Church of England, they have traditionally been used as Antiphons to the Magnificat at Evening Prayer during this period, and although not printed in the Book of Common Prayer, have long been part of secondary Anglican Liturgical sources, such as the English Hymnal. More recently, they have found a place in primary Liturgical documents throughout the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England's Common Worship Liturgy.

Fleury Abbey (Floriacum) in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, France, 

founded about 640 A.D., is one of the most celebrated 

Benedictine Monasteries of Western Europe, 

which possesses the Relics of Saint Benedict of Nursia.

Photo: July 2005.

Author: Christophe.Finot

(Wikimedia Commons)

Use of the O Antiphons also occurs in many Lutheran Churches. In the Book of Common Worship, published by the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Antiphons can be read as a Praise Litany at Morning or Evening Prayer.

The Hymn, O come, O come, Emmanuel (in Latin, Veni Emmanuel) is a lyrical paraphrase of these Antiphons.

The first letters of the titles, taken backwards, form a Latin acrostic of "Ero Cras" which translates to "Tomorrow, I will be there", mirroring the theme of the antiphons.

Isaiah's Lips Anointed With Fire.

Artist: Benjamin West (1738 - 1820).

Current Location: BJU Museum and Gallery.

Source/Photographer: BJU Museum and Gallery.

(Wikimedia Commons)

According to Fr. William Saunders:

“ The exact origin of the "O Antiphons" is not known. Boethius (480 A.D. – 524 A.D.) used language which may be a reference to them, thereby suggesting their presence in the 6th-Century A.D. At the Benedictine Fleury Abbey, these Antiphons were recited by the Abbot and other Abbey leaders in descending Rank, and then a gift was given to each Member of the Community. By the 8th-Century A.D., they were in use in The Liturgical Celebrations in Rome. The usage of the "O Antiphons" was so prevalent in Monasteries that the phrases "Keep your O" and "The Great O Antiphons" were common parlance. One may thereby conclude that, in some fashion, the "O Antiphons" have been part of Western Liturgical Tradition since the very Early-Church.

The Benedictine Monks arranged these Antiphons with a definite purpose. If one starts with the last Title and takes the first letter of each one—Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia—the Latin words ero cras are formed, meaning: "Tomorrow, I will come". Therefore, Jesus, Whose coming Christians have prepared for in Advent and Whom they have addressed in these Seven Messianic Titles, now speaks to them: "Tomorrow, I will come." So, the "O Antiphons" not only bring intensity to their Advent preparation, but bring it to a joyful conclusion. ”

A number of other Antiphons were found in various Mediaeval Breviaries.

The importance of the "O Antiphons" is twofold. First, each one is a Title for The Messiah. Secondly, each one refers to the Prophecy of Isaiah of the coming of The Messiah. The Latin Antiphons are from The Breviarium Romanum. The English versions, which are not always literal translations of the Latin, are from The Church of England's Common Worship Liturgy. Biblical quotations are from The NRSV.

The Mystery of Advent (Part Three)

Non-Italic text is 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.

Italic text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal is obtainable from Carmel Books, Blackford House, Andover Road, Highclere, Newbury, Berkshire, England RG20 9PF. Tel: (01635 255340).
E-Mail: enquiries.carmelbooks@gmail.com

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

The first three Great O Antiphons (which commence on 17 December) are shown on this Verso
 of folio 30 from The Poissy Antiphonal, a certified Dominican antiphonal of 428 folios from Poissy, written 1335-1345, with a complete annual cycle of chants for the Divine Office 
(Temporal, Sanctoral and Commons) and a hymnal. Date: 1335 - 1345.

Source: La Trobe University Library, Medieval Music Database, 

The Poissy Antiphonal, folio 30v.

Author: Unknown.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Church aspires also to the second coming, the consequence of the first, which consists, as we have just seen, in the visit of the Bridegroom to the bride. This coming takes place, each year, at the Feast of Christmas, when the new birth of the Son of God delivers the faithful from that yoke of bondage, under which the enemy would oppress them. [Collect for Christmas Day.]

The Church, therefore, during Advent, prays that she may be visited by Him who is her Head and her Spouse; visited in her hierarchy; visited in her members, of whom some are living, and some are dead, but may come to life again; visited, lastly, in those who are not in communion with her, and even in the very infidels, that so they may be converted to the true light, which shines even for them.

The expressions of the Liturgy which the Church makes use of to ask for this loving and invisible coming, are those which she employs when begging for the coming of Jesus in the flesh; for the two visits are for the same object.

English: Church of Saint-Étienne in Beauvais, France. 

Jesse Tree window by Engrand Le Prince, 1522-1524.

Français : Vitrail de l'église Saint-Étienne de Beauvais, France, 

représentant l'arbre de Jessé. Sa réalisation, par Engrand Le Prince, date de 1522-1524.

Source: Book "Stained Glass: An Illustrated History" by Sarah Brown.

Author: Engrand Leprince.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In vain would the Son of God have come, nineteen hundred years ago, to visit and save mankind, unless He came again for each one of us and at every moment of our lives, bringing to us and cherishing within us that supernatural life, of which He and His Holy Spirit are the sole principle.


The following is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

SEASON OF ADVENT.
(From the First Sunday of Advent to 24 December).

Doctrinal Note.

If we read the Liturgical texts which the Church uses in the course of the four weeks of Advent, we see clearly that it is her intention to make us share the attitude of mind of the Patriarchs and seers of Israel, who looked forward to the Advent of the Messias in His twofold coming of Grace and Glory.

During this Season, the Greek Church commemorates Our Lord's ancestors, especially Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. On the Fourth Sunday, she honours all the Patriarchs of the Old Testament; from Adam to Saint Joseph, and the Prophets, of whom Saint Matthew speaks in his genealogy of Our Lord.

The Latin Church, without honouring them in any special form of devotion, nevertheless speaks to us of them in the Office, when quoting the promises made to them concerning the Messias.

PART FOUR FOLLOWS

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.

Français : L'adoration des bergers.

English: The Adoration of the Shepherds.

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.

(Taken from the Blog, Ars Orandi, The Art and Beauty of Tradional Catholicism)

Web-Site: http://arsorandi.blogspot.co.uk/

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.

(Taken from the Blog, Ars Orandi, The Art and Beauty of Tradional Catholicism)

Web-Site: http://arsorandi.blogspot.co.uk/

[Editor. All within these square brackets 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

O Holy Night - Celine Dion (These Are Special Times)

The Mystery of Advent (Part One)

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.

Advent wreath. First Sunday of Advent.

Photo: November 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Micha L. Rieser.

(Wikimedia Commons)

CHAPTER THE SECOND

The Mystery of Advent

If, now that we have described the characteristic features of Advent which distinguish it from the rest of the Liturgical Year, we would penetrate into the profound mystery which occupies the mind of the Church during this Season, we find that this mystery of the coming, or Advent, of Jesus is at once simple and threefold.

It is simple, for it is the one same Son of God that is coming; it is threefold, because He comes at three different times and in three different ways.

'In the first coming,' says Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, 'He comes in the flesh and in weakness; in the second, He comes in spirit and in power; in the third, He comes in glory and in majesty; and the second coming is the means whereby we pass from the first to the third.' [Fifth sermon for Advent.]

Deutsch: Weihnachtsbeleuchtung der Hauptstraße 

in Remshalden-Geradstetten, Deutschland; Nachtaufnahme.

English: Christmas lighting 

in Remshalden-Geradstetten, Germany; night photograph.

Photo: January 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Wildfeuer.

(Wikimedia Commons)

This, then, is the mystery of Advent. Let us now listen to the explanation of this threefold visit of Christ, given to us by Peter of Blois, in his third Sermon de Adventu: 'There are three comings of Our Lord; the first in the flesh; the second in the Soul; the third at the Judgement.

The first was at midnight, according to those words of the Gospel: At midnight there was a cry made, Lo the Bridegroom cometh ! But this first coming is long since past, for Christ has been seen on the Earth and has conversed with men.

English: Illuminated Christmas tree for the “Quiet Advent” on the Johannes-Brahms-Promenade, Western Bay in Pörtschach am Wörthersee, district Klagenfurt Land, Carinthia, Austria

Deutsch: Erleuchteter Weihnachtsbaum für „Stiller Advent“ an der Johannes-Brahms-Promenade, West-Bucht in Pörtschach am Wörthersee, Bezirk Klagenfurt Land, Kärnten, Österreich

Photo: December 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Johann Jaritz.

(Wikimedia Commons)

We are now in the second coming, provided only we are such as that He may thus come to us; for He has said that if we love Him, He will come unto us and will take up His abode with us. So that this second coming is full of uncertainty to us: for who, save the Spirit of God, knows them that are of God?

They that are raised out of themselves by the desire of heavenly things, know indeed when He comes; but whence He cometh, or whither He goeth, they know not.

PART TWO FOLLOWS

Advent (Part Six)

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.

Unless otherwise stated, Illustrations are taken from 
Una Voce of Orange County web-site at http://uvoc.org/, 

which reproduced them, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press, from 
The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 1952 Edition.

The Virgin in Prayer

by Giovanni Battista Salvi "Il Sassoferrato",

Jungfrun i bön (1640-1650). 

National Gallery, London.

(between 1640 and 1650).
(Wikimedia Commons)

Mother of God.

Queen of Heaven.

Mother of the Church.

Mediatrix.

Co-Redemptrix.

Our Lady.

Blessed Virgin Mary.

Ora Pro Nobis.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

"The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship."

From that time, the Roman Church has always observed this arrangement of Advent, which gives it four weeks, the fourth being that in which Christmas Day falls, unless 25 December be a Sunday.

We may therefore consider the present discipline of the observance of Advent as having lasted a thousand years, at least as far as the Church in France kept up the number of five Sundays as late as the 13th-Century.

The Ambrosian Liturgy, even to this day, has six weeks of Advent; so has the Gothic or Mozarabic missal. As regards the Gallican Liturgy, the fragments collected by Dom Mabillon give us no information; but it is natural to suppose with this learned man, whose opinion has been confirmed by Dom Martene, that the Church of God adopted, in this as in so many other points, the usages of the Gothic Church, that is to say, that its Advent consisted of six Sundays and six weeks.

Jacinta Marto.

Photo: 1917.

Source: http://www.todayscatholicworld.com/jacinta-marto-fatima-portugal-1917.jpg

Author: Unknown.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Shortly before her death at age 9, 

Blessed Jacinta Marto of Fátima asked that everyone consecrate themselves 

to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

With regard to the Greeks, their rubrics for Advent are given in the Menaea, immediately after the Office for 14 November.

They have no proper Office for Advent, neither do they celebrate during this time the Mass of the Pre-sanctified, as they do in Lent.

There are only in the Offices for the Saints, whose Feasts occur between 14 November and the Sunday nearest Christmas, frequent allusions to the birth of the Saviour, to the Maternity of Mary, to the cave of Bethlehem, etc.

On the Sunday preceding Christmas, in order to celebrate the expected coming of the Messias, they keep what they call the Feast of the Holy Fathers, that is the Commemoration of the Saints of the Old Law.

They give the name of Ante-Feast of the Nativity to 20, 21, 22, 23 December; and, although they say the Office of several Saints on these four days, yet the mystery of the birth of Jesus pervades the whole Liturgy.

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal is obtainable from Carmel Books, Blackford House, Andover Road, Highclere, Newbury, Berkshire, England RG20 9PF. Tel: (01635 255340).
E-Mail: enquiries.carmelbooks@gmail.com

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON THE HISTORY OF ADVENT.

Advent (Part Five)

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.

Unless otherwise stated, Illustrations are taken from 
Una Voce of Orange County web-site at http://uvoc.org/, 

which reproduced them, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press, from 

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 1952 Edition.

The Nativity.

But, if the exterior practices of penance which formerly sanctified the Season of Advent, have been, in the Western Church, so gradually relaxed as to have become now quite obsolete except in monasteries, [our recent (late-19th-Century) English observance of Fast and Abstinence on the Wednesdays and Fridays in Advent, may, in some sense, be regarded as a remnant of the ancient discipline. Note of the Translator.] the general character of the Liturgy of this holy time has not changed; and it is by their zeal in following its spirit, that the faithful will prove their earnestness in preparing for Christmas.

The Liturgical form of Advent as it now exists in the Roman Church, has gone through certain modifications. Saint Gregory seems to have been the first to draw up the Office for this Season, which originally included five Sundays, as is evident from the most ancient sacramentaries of this great Pope. 

It even appears probable, and the opinion has been adopted by Amalarius of Metz, Berno of Reichnau, Dom Martene, and Benedict XIV, that Saint Gregory originated the ecclesiastical precept of Advent, although the custom of devoting a longer or shorter period to a preparation for Christmas has been observed from time immemorial, and the Abstinence and Fast of this holy season first began in France.

Pope Benedict XIV (1740 - 1758) adopted the opinion that 

Saint Gregory originated the ecclesiastical precept of Advent. 

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Gregory therefore fixed, for the Churches of the Latin Rite, the form of the Office for this Lent-like Season, and sanctioned the Fast which had been established, granting a certain latitude to the several Churches as to the manner of its observance.

The sacramentary of Saint Gelasius has neither Mass nor Office of preparation for Christmas; the first we meet with are in the Gregorian sacramentary, and, as we just observed, these Masses are five in number.

It is remarkable that these Sundays were then counted inversely, that is, the nearest to Christmas was called the First Sunday, and so on with the rest. So far back to the 9th- and 10th-Centuries, these Sundays were reduced to four, as we learn from Amalarius of Metz, Pope Saint Nicholas I, Berno of Reichnau, Ratherius of Verona, etc, and such also is their number in the Gregorian sacramentary of Pamelius, which appears to have been transcribed about this same period.

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal is obtainable from Carmel Books, Blackford House, Andover Road, Highclere, Newbury, Berkshire, England RG20 9PF. Tel: (01635 255340).
E-Mail: enquiries.carmelbooks@gmail.com

PART SIX FOLLOWS

Advent (Part Four)

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.

Unless otherwise stated, Illustrations are taken from 
Una Voce of Orange County web-site at http://uvoc.org/, 

which reproduced them, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press, from 

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 1952 Edition.




Saint Thomas, Apostle. 
Feast Day 21 December.
Double of the Second Class.
Red Vestments.

This much is certain, that, by degrees, the custom of Fasting so far fell into disuse, that when, in 1362, Pope Urban V endeavoured to prevent the total decay of the Advent penance, all he insisted upon was that all the Clerics of his court should keep Abstinence during Advent, without in any way including others, either Clergy or Laity, in this law.

Saint Charles Borromeo also strove to bring back his people of Milan to the spirit, if not to the letter, of ancient times. In his Fourth Council, he enjoins the Parish Priests to exhort the faithful to go to Communion on the Sundays, at least, of Lent and Advent; and afterwards addressed to the faithful themselves a Pastoral Letter, in which, after having reminded them of the dispositions wherewith they ought to spend this holy time, he strongly urges them to Fast on the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at least, of each week in Advent.

Finally, Pope Benedict XIV, when Archbishop of Bologna, following these illustrious examples, wrote his eleventh Ecclesiastical Institution for the purpose of exciting in the minds of his diocesans the exalted idea which the Christians of former times had of the holy season of Advent, and of removing an erroneous opinion which prevailed in those parts, namely, that Advent concerned Religious only and not the Laity.

Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist.

Feast Day 27 December.

Station at Saint Mary Major.

(Indulgence of 30 years and 30 Quarantines)

Double of the Second Class with Simple Octave.

White Vestments.

He shows them that such an opinion, unless it be limited to the two practices of Fasting and Abstinence, is, strictly speaking, rash and scandalous, since it cannot be denied that, in the laws and usages of the universal Church, there exist special practices, having for their end to prepare the faithful for the great Feast of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The Greek Church still continues to observe the Fast of Advent, though with much less rigour that that of Lent. It consists of forty days, beginning with 14 November, the day on which this Church keeps the Feast of the Apostle, Saint Philip. During this entire period, the people abstain from flesh-meat, butter, milk, and eggs; but they are allowed, which they are not during Lent, fish, oil, and wind.

Fasting, in its strict sense, is binding only on seven out of the forty days; and the whole period goes under the name of Saint Philip's Lent. The Greeks justify these relaxations by this distinction: That the Lent before Christmas is, so they say, only an institution of the monks, whereas the Lent before Easter is of Apostolic institution.

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal is obtainable from Carmel Books, Blackford House, Andover Road, Highclere, Newbury, Berkshire, England RG20 9PF. Tel: (01635 255340).
E-Mail: enquiries.carmelbooks@gmail.com

PART FIVE FOLLOWS

Advent (Part Three)

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.

Unless otherwise stated, Illustrations are taken from 
Una Voce of Orange County web-site at http://uvoc.org/, 

which reproduced them, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press, from 

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 1952 Edition.

Receive, O merciful Father, these holy Sacrifices (Te igitur)

The obligation of observing this Lent, which, though introduced so imperceptibly, had by degrees acquired the force of a sacred law, began to be relaxed, and the forty days from Saint Martin's Day to Christmas were reduced to four weeks.

We have seen that this Fast began to be observed first in France; but thence it spread into England, as we find from Venerable Bede's history; into Italy, as appears from a diploma of Astolphus, King of the Lombards, dated 753 A.D; into Germany, Spain, etc, of which the proofs may be seen in the learned work of Dom Martene, On the ancient rites of the Church.

The first allusion to Advent's being reduced to four weeks is to be found in the 9th-Century, in a Letter of Pope Saint Nicholas I to the Bulgarians. The testimony of Ratherius of Verona, and of Abbo of Fleury, both writers of the 10th-Century, goes also to prove that, even then, the question of reducing the duration of the Advent Fast by one-third was seriously entertained.

Holy Family, Magi, and Shepherds

It is true that Saint Peter Damian, in the 11th-Century, speaks of the Advent Fast as still being for forty days; and that Saint Louis, two centuries later,  kept it for that length of time; but as far as this holy king is concerned, it is probable that it was only his own devotion which prompted him to this practice.

The discipline of the Churches of the West, after having reduced the time of the Advent Fast, so far relented, in a few years, as to change the Fast into a simple abstinence; and we even find Councils of the 12th-Century, for instance Selingstadt in 1122, and Avranches in 1172, which seem to require only the Clergy to observe this abstinence.

The Council of Salisbury, held in 1281, would seem to expect none but monks to keep it. On the other hand (for the whole subject is very confused, owing, no doubt, to there never having been any uniformity of discipline regarding it in the Western Church), we find Pope Innocent III, in his Letter to the Bishop of Braga, mentioning the custom of Fasting during the whole of Advent, as being at that time observed in Rome; and Durandus, in the same 13th-Century, in his Rational on the Divine Offices, tells us that, in France, Fasting was uninterruptedly observed during the whole of that holy time.

PART FOUR FOLLOWS

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.

Unless otherwise stated, Illustrations are taken from 
Una Voce of Orange County web-site at http://uvoc.org/, 

which reproduced them, with the kind permission of St. Bonaventure Press, from 

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 1952 Edition.

I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.

Saint Ivo of Chartres, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and several other Doctors of the 11th- and 12-Centuries, have left us Set Sermons de Adventu Domini, quite distinct from their Sunday Homilies on the Gospels of that Season.

In the capitularia of Charles the Bald, in 846 A.D., the Bishops admonish that Prince not to call them away from their Churches during Lent or Advent, under pretext of affairs of State or the necessities of war, seeing that they have special duties to fulfil, and particularly that of preaching during those sacred times.

The oldest document in which we find the length and exercises of Advent mentioned with anything like clearness, is a passage in the second book of the History of the Franks, by Saint Gregory of Tours, where he says that Saint Perpetuus, one of his predecessors, who held that See about the year 480 A.D., had decreed a Fast three times a week, from the Feast of Saint Martin until Christmas. It would be impossible to decide whether Saint Perpetuus, by his regulations, established a new custom, or merely enforced an already existing law. Let us, however, note this interval of forty, or rather forty-three, days, so expressly mentioned, and consecrated to penance, as though it were a second Lent, though less strict and severe than that which precedes Easter.

John preaching the Baptism of Penance.

Later on, we find the Ninth Canon of the First Council of Macon, held in 582 A.D., ordaining that during the same interval between Saint Martin's Day and Christmas, the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, should be Fasting Days, and that the Sacrifice should be celebrated according to the Lenten Rite.

Not many years before that, namely in 567 A.D., the Second Council of Tours had enjoined the monks to Fast from the beginning of December till Christmas. This practice of penance soon extended to the whole forty days, even for the laity; and it was commonly called Saint Martin's Lent.

The capitularia of Charlemagne, in the sixth book, leave us no doubt on the matter; and Rabanus Maurus, in the second book of his Institution of clerics, bears testimony to this observance. There were even special rejoicings made on Saint Martin's Feast, just as we see them practised now at the approach of Lent and Easter.

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal is obtainable from Carmel Books, Blackford House, Andover Road, Highclere, Newbury, Berkshire, England RG20 9PF. Tel: (01635 255340).
E-Mail: enquiries.carmelbooks@gmail.com

PART THREE FOLLOWS