The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-12-13
ADVENT.
Its Duration. A Fitting Preparation
for the Coming of the Redeemer
and Christmas.

Advent according to present usage,
writes Reverend Francis Mershman,
o. S. B., in the Catholic Encyclopedia,
is a period beginning with the Sun
day nearest to the feast of st. Andrew
the Apostle November 800, and en-
bracing four Sundays. The first Sun
day may be as early as November q
and then Advent has twenty-eight
days, or as late as December 3, CIV
ing the season only twenty-one days.
With Advent the ecclesiastical year
begins in the Western churches. Dur
ing this time the faithful are admon-
ished to prepare themselves worthily
to celebrate the anniversary of the
Lords coming into the world as the
incarnate God of love, thus to make
their souls fitting abodes for the Re-
deemer coming in Holy Communion
and through grace, and thereby to
make themselves ready for His final
coming as Judge, at death and at the
end of the world.
To attain this. object the Church
has arranged the Liturgy for this sea-
son. In the official prayer, the Brew
larry, she calls upon her ministers, in
the Invitatory for Mathis, to adore
'the Lord, the King that is to come, F"
"the Lord already near" Him Whose
glory will be seen on the morrow"
AS Lessons for the first Nocturn she
Isaias, who speaks in scathing terms
of the ingratitude of the house of
Israel, the chosen children who had
forsaken and forgotten their Father;
who tells of the Man of Sorrows
stricken for the sins of His people,
who describes accurately the passion
and death of the coming Saviour and
His final glory; who announces the
gathering of the Gentiles to the Holy
Hill. In the second Nocturn the Les
sons on three Sundays are taken from
the eighth homily of Pope st. Leo
(440-461, on fasting and almsdeeds as
a preparation for the advent of the
from ST. Jerome's commentary on
Isaias, xi, 1, which text he interprets
of the Blessed Virgin Mary as "the
rod out of the root of JESSE" In
the hymns of the season we find
praise for the coming Christ, the
Creator of the universe, as Redeemer
combined with prayer to the coming
Judge of the world to protect us from
the enemy Similar ideas are ex
pressed in the antiphons for the Mag
nificat on the last seven days before
the Vigil of the Nativity. In them
the Church calls on the Divine Wis
dom to teach us the way of prudence
on the Key of David to free us from
bondage; on the Rising Sun to illum
mate us sitting in darkness and thu
shadow of death, etc. In the Masses
the intention of the Church is shown
in the choice of the Epistles and Cos
pels In the Epistle she exhorts thu
faithful that, since the Redeemer il
nearer, they should cast aside tn,
works of darkness and put on the ar
mour of light; should walk honestly
as in the day, and put on the Lore
Jesus Christ; she shows that the ma
lions are called to praise the nam
OF the LOru, she ASKS Inem " IL
ioice in the nearness of the Lord, s
that the peace of God, which surpasse
all understanding, may keep thei
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus; sh
admonishes them not to pass juds
ment, for the Lord, when He comes
will manifest the secrets hidden !
hearts. In the Gospels the Churc
speaks of the Lord coming in glory
of Him in, and through. Whom th
prophecies are being fulfilled; of II