'The Church of Rome does not keep this day as a feast of any saint; she simply recites the Office of the feria. This first day of December should be a simple feria of Advent, and we shall 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 realized. 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 Machabees; 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' (Ecclus. 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' (Heb. xi. 39, 40), their Faith was tried and approved, and yet they received not the object of the promises made to them. It is for us that God had reserved the stupendous gift, and therefore He did not permit them to attain the object of their desires.
Let us honor them for their Faith; let us honor them as our veritable fathers, since it is in reward of their Faith, that our Lord remembered and fulfilled His merciful promise; let us honor them, too, as the ancestors of the Messias in the Flesh. We me 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 Thy Salvation, O Lord!" It was the exclamation of Jacob, at his prophetic blessings on his children: 'and then he drew up his feet upon his bed, and died, and he was gathered unto his people.'
Thus did all these holy men, on quitting this life, go to await, far from the abode of eternal light, Him Who was to come in due time and reopen the ate 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 Messias 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.'
And, to end, we have a Responsory of Advent, which is from the Roman Breviary:
R. Looking afar off, lo! I see the power of God coming and a cloud that covereth the whole earth: Go ye out to meet him and say: Tell us, if thou be he, Who art to rule over the people of Israel.
V. All ye that are earthborn and children of men, both rich and poor together, go ye out to meet him, and say:
V. Give ear, O thou that rulest Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep, Tell us if thou be he.
V. Lift up your gates, O ye princes; and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of glory shall enter in.
Who art to rule over the people of Israel.
And I say: "Come, Lord Jesus!"
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