2nd Sunday of Advent--2011

VENITE, ADORAMUS!

Come, let us adore Him!

"And there shall come forth a branch out of the rod of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and of Godliness: and he shall be filled with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord" Isaias XI

St. Jerome, whose words are read by the Church in the lessons of the second nocturn of this Sunday, says that the branch which cometh forth from the root of Jesse, is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who had contact with no shrub or plant; and that the flower is the Lord Jesus, who says in the Canticle of canticles: 'I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valley.' In the middle ages the tree of Jesse, with its prophetic branches, was carved on the cathedral porches, was painted on the windows, was embroidered on the hangings of the sanctuary, and the melodious voice of the priests sang its praises as follows:

The root of Jesse gave out a branch, and the branch a flower; and on the flower resteth the holy Spirit.
The Virgin Mother of God is the branch, her Son the flower. And on the flower resteth the holy Spirit.

St. Bernard, commenting upon this responsory, in his second Advent homily, says: 'The Virgin's Son is the flower, a flower white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands; a flower on whom the angels love to look; a flower whose fragrance restores the dead; a flower, as himself assures us, of the field, not of a garden: for the flowers of the field bloom without man's care, no man has sown their seed, no man has cultivated them. Just so the Virgin's womb, a meadow verdant in an endless spring, has brought forth a flower, whose beauty will never droop, whose freshness will never fade. O Virgin, branch sublime, to what a height art thou frown! Even up to Him that sitteth on the throne, even to the Lord of majesty. It was sure to be so, for thou castest deep down the roots of humility. O plant of heaven indeed! precious above all, holier than all. O tree of life indeed! alone worthy to bear the fruit of salvation!'

How appropriate, since her Immaculate Conception is remembered this coming Thursday. Don't miss it!

Come, let us adore Him and honor Her.

Saturday-the 1st week of Advent

We begin today with a prose in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and is found in all Roman-French missals:

God, the lover of man, sends to the Virgin no less an angel than him who is called God's strength, the Archangel Gabriel.
May this strong messenger be speedily at his work; may he stay the rights and laws of nature in the Virgin's delivery.
May the King of glory, when born, triumph over nature; may he reign and command; may he take away from the midst of men all leaven and rust.
May he humble proud heads; may this God, mighty in war, trample in his power on the necks of the haughty.
May he cast forth the prince of this world; and make his Mother share with him the empire which his Father has given him.
Go forth, messenger of God, announce these gifts; lift up, by the virtue of thy annunciation, the veil of the ancient Scripture.
Approach, tell thy announcement: say, when thou art in her presence: 'Hail!' Say: 'O full of grace!' Say: 'The Lord is with thee!' and then: 'Fear not!'
Receive, O Virgin, the divine deposit; by him fulfill thy chaste purpose, and keep thy vow.

The Maid hears and accepts the announcement; she believes and conceives, and brings forth a Son, but he is the admirable,
The counsellor of mankind, God and Man, Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace.
May his firmness render us firm, lest human frailty should make us stumble into the abyss.
But may the Giver of pardon, granting us pardon and grace, obtained by the Mother of grace, dwell within us.
May he that grants us pardon of our sins, wipe away all our guilt, and give us the country in the starry heaven. Amen.

Our prayer which comes before Holy Communion is next, and comes fr St. Augustine:

O God, to whom belong all things, in whom are all things, I beseech thee, spare my soul, spare my evil deeds, spare my iniquities. Visit me in my sickness and cure my trouble. Give me a heart that will love thee, intelligence with which to know thee, ears to hear thy voice, eyes of the soul to see thee. Give me a spark of thy wisdom to show me the way of justice and to teach me to avoid the wiles of the enemy.

Friday-The first week of Advent

Things are starting to look festive around here today. Decorations, the tree, lights, etc. Real Christmasy! And now, we move on. Today's hymn is taken from the Anthology of the Greeks:

Let us sing, in gladness of heart, the canticles of the pre-vigil of the birth of Christ; for he, who is coequal with the Father and the Spirit, having, in his great compassion for our miseries, clothed himself with the leaven of our clay, is to be born in the city of Bethlehem; and shepherds with angels will hymn his ineffable birth.
Let us play loud on our cymbals, let us shout our songs of victory; Christ is to appear visibly; the predictions of the prophets are fulfilled; he, who they foretold would appear amongst mortals, is to be born in a holy cave, and to lie in a crib a little child.
Get thee ready, O Bethlehem! Eden, open thy gates! Land of Juda, put on thy best! Let the heavens be glad, let men exult! To enrich the poverty of Adam by the abundance of his mercy, Life is in that crib, the rich One is in that cave, yet the divine Nature suffers no change or confusion.
From the clouds drop down dew from on high. He who puts the clouds in the air, he the adorable God, has descended in a cloud, and that cloud is the Virgin: he has done this, that light everlasting may shine from him on those who heretofore were in darkness and peril.
O most sweet Child, how shall I feed thee? said the blessed Lady. How shall I take thee into my arms, thou that holdest all things in thy power? How shall I wrap thee in swathing bands, that coverest the whole earth with clouds?
My Babe, said the Virgin Mother of Christ, how shall I hide thee, bright Sun, in swaddling clothes? How shall I so imprison thee that holdest all things? Shall I be able to fix my gaze on thee, whom the many-eyed spirits dare not look upon?
Get ready, then, O Bethlehem, all that is needed for the birth. And thou, Joseph, go and be enrolled with Mary. O crib ever venerable! O ye bands that swathe our God, holding in your folds the Life that breaks the bands of death, and ties us mortals to immortality, Christ Jesus our God.


Man, that is an awesome hymn, something to really think about! The next reading is before Holy Communion, and from the Coptic liturgy:

Once more we ask and pray thy goodness, O lover of mankind, for ourselves, thy servants, who bow their heads before thy glory. Grant us thy mercy and free us from our sins; and where we have done wrong, knowingly or unknowingly, whether in word or deed, whether from fear or cowardice, do thou, kindly God and Lover of us all, grant thy forgiveness. Bless us all, make us clean of heart, fill our minds with reverence of thee, and guide us in the way of thy will.

Thursday--1st week of Advent

Just as soon as I get my driveways all cleared out, here comes the snowplow. I should get stock in Epsom salts. Anyway, we move on, only slower.
This first prayer is from the Ambrosian missal:

Almighty and everlasting God, who, by the coming of thine only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, didst deign to shine on us with a new light; grant unto us, that as we deserved to have Him as our companion in the form of our body, by the birth the Virgin gave Him; so also we may merit to be His companions in the kingdom of His grace; who liveth and reigneth with thee for ever and ever. Amen.

And now, our prayer for the Holy Eucharist as an act of praise:

O everlasting kingdom, kingdom of endless ages, whereon rests the untroubled light and the peace of God which passes all understanding, where the souls of the saints are at rest, and everlasting joy is upon their heads, and sorrow and sighing have fled away. Oh how glorious is the kingdom in which thy saints reign with thee, O Lord, clothed with light as with a garment, and having on their heads a crown of precious stones! For there is infinite, unfading joy, gladness without sorrow, health without a pang, life without toil, light without darkness, life without death; where the vigor of age knows no decay, and beauty withers not, nor doth love grow cold, now joy wane away, for there we look evermore upon the face of the Lord God of Hosts. I see Him at last whom I have ardently desired, I hold Him I have hoped for; I possess Him I have longed for...I embrace in the fullness of charity Him with whom I remained united by all the love of my heart; it is Him I praise, Him I bless, Him I adore, Him, my God, who lives for ever and for ever. Amen.
St. Augustine

1st Wednesday of Advent

I'm a little late today with a post, since we had an instant winter, with a few inches of that white stuff on everything. And, I had 8 homes to plow out, as well as picking up a couple more. I used some muscles that I haven't used for some time. Come to me, Epsom salts! Anywho, here's today's installment. It is from the Mozarabic missal:

It is meet and just, and available to us in all things, that we always should extol, by all possible praises, thy clemency, O almighty Father, who didst create us in holiness and nobleness, and, when the fraud of the old serpent had seduced us, didst in pure mercy deliver us from death. Thou didst foretell, in past ages, that the Son, whom thou wast to send in the flesh for us, would come on this earth and would be born of a Virgin, and by thy holy prophets didst foretell the advent of his birth; and this to the end that he who had been promised, having been long expected, might give great joy to the world when he should come in the fulness of time. Wherefore we pray and beseech thee, that thou, who didst not suffer thy creature to perish, because thou art truly compassionate and merciful, but didst restore what was lost by the humble coming of thy Son, wouldst now so protect, so keep, so heal, so defend, so free, what thou hast found and repaired and restored, that in that dread coming, whereby thy Son shall come a second time to judge those by whom and for whom he himself was judged, he may so find the creatures that he has redeemed, that he may eternally possess those whom he purchased with the price of his Blood.

And now, a prayer for Holy Communion. This is from a book which I have not been able to track down. It's probably in Latin anyway, so I would be at a disadvantage. It is called "Paradisus Animae", and it is in the 'Thanksgiving prayers'; this one is for the act of trust:

'O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in thee. Why art thou sad, O my soul, and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, the fountain of all good, and the Author of all grace, whom thou hast present with thee in this Sacrament; go to him with all confidence for he is sweet and meek, and of great mercy to all that call upon him. He alone is able to give us all things, nay he is willing to give us all things, because he is supremely good. O God, my hope! my heart rejoices when I receive thee in this Sacrament, because I clearly trust that there is nothing thou wilt not give us, who hast given us thyself. In thee, O Lord, do I trust; let me not be disappointed in my hope.'

1st Tuesday of Advent

As promised, another entry from 'The Liturgical Year'. This is is a hymn, composed in the 9th century, and taken from the hymnarium of Blessed Joseph-Maria Tommasi:

May the sun, and stars, and land, and sea, sound forth the coming of the most high God: may the rich and poor unite their songs of praise to the Son of the supreme Creator!
He is the Saviour promised to our fathers; the glorious offspring of a Virgin: the Son of the mighty God born of him before the morning star.
He is the King of glory, and is coming to rule as God over kings, trample our wicked enemy beneath his feet, and heal this sick world of ours.
Let the angels rejoice, let all nations exult; he that is high is coming in lowliness to save what had been lost.
A God-Man is born, and the holy Trinity reigns; the Son co-eternal with the Father, our Lord, descends upon our earth.
Let the prophets cry out, and prophesy: Emmanuel is nigh unto us. Let the tongues of the dumb speak, and ye, poor lame ones, run to meet Him.
Let the lamb and the wild beast feed with each other:: let the ox and the ass know him that lies in the manger.
The royal glittering standard ushers in our divine Chief: ye kings prepare your gifts for the noble and royal Babe.
O the blessed message sent to the Virgin Mary! By believing she conceives; she is a Mother, and a Virgin knowing not man.
All ye nations and islands applaud this grand triumph. Run swiftly as the stag, lo! the Redeemer is coming.
Let the eyes of the blind, who have been sitting in darkness, now learn to throw off the murky night, and open to the true light.
Let Galilee, and Greece, and Persia, and India, receive the faith: a God deigns to become man, and remains the Word with the Father.
Praise, honour, power, glory, be to God the Father, and to the Son, together with the Holy Ghost, for eternal ages. Amen.

And now a hymn by Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274), for Holy Communion:

This faith to Christian men is given--
Bread is made flesh by words from heaven:
Into his Blood the wine is turned:
What though it baffles nature's powers
Of sense and sight? This faith of ours
Proves more than nature e'er discerned.

Concealed beneath the twofold sign,
Meet symbols of the gifts divine,
There lie the mysteries adored:
The living Body is our food;
Our drink the ever-precious Blood;
In each, one undivided Lord.

Not he that eateth it divides
The sacred food, which whole abides
Unbroken still, nor knows decay;Be one, or be a thousand fed,
They eat alike that living Bread
Which, still received, ne'er wastes away.

The good, the guilty share therein,
With sure increase of grace or sin,
The ghostly life, or ghostly death:
Death to the guilty; to the good
Immortal life. See how one food
Man's joy or woe accomplished.

Monday of the first week of Advent

I'm going to try to enter something every day of this Advent season, because I need to be reminded of why I am here. Most of what I put down will be from the "Liturgical Year", by Abbot Gueranger, from the late 1920's.

Today's entry is a prose from the 11th century, and taken from the ancient Roman-French missals.

Thou our eternal salvation, the never-failing light of the world.
Light everlasting and our true redemption.
Moved with compassion to see the human race perish by its idolatry offered to its very tempter.
Thou didst descend to these depths of our misery, yet not leaving thine own high throne above.
Then, by thy own gratuitous love, assuming our human nature,
Thou didst save all on earth that was lost.
Giving joy to this world.
Come, O Christ, purify our souls and bodies.
And make them thy own pure abode.
Justify us by thy first coming.
And in thy second, deliver us;
That so, when thou judgest all things, on the day of the great light,
We may be adorned with a spotless robe, and may follow thy footsteps wheresoever they are seen. Amen.

I also would like to offer some prayers from a book that I have, "Devotions for Holy Communion". It was put together in the late 1950's, and I think that it has just some awesome prayers, which we never hear any more. It's also very hard to find, but I have two of them. Anyway, here is one from the Gothic Breviary in the 7th century.

We blush with shame, O Lord, to call thee Father, we who have forfeited the dignity of sons. Yet, because with Fatherly affection thou dost save us, even when judging our faults, so, unworthy sons as we are, we may still make our appeal to thy Fatherly care. In this moment of true sorrow, then, let our sins be forgotten. So, if not by our deserving, at least by our love, we may be entitled to call thee Father.