The Time of Advent and of Christmas

1. Advent Time

The Four Weeks of Advent.—The time of preparation for the sweet mysteries of the birth of Our Lord is called Advent, that is to say, the coming. Its four weeks recall to Christians the four thousand years of prayers and sighs which preceded the coming of the Messias.

The O Anthems of Advent.—Seven days before Christmas is sung at Vespers an anthem called “O of Advent,” because it begins with this exclamation; it is a cry sent out to the Messias. It is sung at Vespers; for was it not in the evening of the world that the Messias came? It is sung at the Magnificat to show that the Saviour for Whom we wait will come to us through Mary. (Guéranger, The Liturgical Year.) Again, the repetition of the anthem expresses well the ardent sighs, constantly p. 137renewed, of the patriarchs; the Introit has already offered us the same figure.

Practices of Advent.—There remain among us to-day few traces of Advent as it was observed by our fathers. They sanctified it by prayer, fasting, and abstinence. The old-time penitence is always practised in monasteries, but among the faithful the Church has preserved but its symbols. During Advent she clothes herself in purple, and this sign of mourning shows us how the Church unites herself to the desire of Israel, who waited in sackcloth and ashes the coming of the Messias. As a sign of widowhood it expresses the sorrow of the Church, who awaits that Spouse Whose absence costs her heart so dear.

Marriages are not celebrated in Advent, their worldly joy being little in agreement with the holy tears and chaste pangs of penitence. Moreover it is toward other nuptial feasts that the Church turns the eyes of her children: these are those of the eternal marriage, begun here below in the eucharistic banquet. The Alleluia, which continues its tender harmony in these days of penitence, should make us sigh for the joys of the festival of the Lamb.

Except on feast-days, the two angelical hymns, the Gloria in excelsis and the Te Deum, are not sung till the great day when they are chanted at the crib of the infant God. The Ite, Missa est, is replaced by the call to prayer: “Benedicamus Domino”—“Let us bless the Lord”; for we cannot pray too much in these holy days of waiting.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th.—The deluge of iniquities which has inundated the world p. 138for four thousand years is about to end; Mary, the heavenly dove, brings the good tidings to the world. The dark night which has weighed upon humanity will soon see its shadows scattered; she whom the Holy Spirit compared to the dawn will appear in this holy season, like a forerunner of the Sun of justice. The star which precedes the morning shines upon the horizon. A thousand times blessed be the day which brings us so much joy! May all Christians hail with gratitude the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary!

Faith teaches us that at the moment when God united the soul of Mary, which He had just created, to the body which it was to animate, not only had that soul not contracted in the least the stain which till then had disfigured every human soul, but it was filled with grace tremendous in extent and ineffable in beauty. A feast in honor of this glorious mystery existed in the East in the sixth century. The Church of Lyons introduced this solemnity into France. The definition of the Immaculate Conception as a dogma was made under the pontificate of Pope Pius IX., December 8, 1854.

The Blue Scapular of the Immaculate Conception.—The venerable Ursula Benincasa, on the day of the purification, saw Mary, who appeared to her clad in a white robe and a blue mantle. She held the infant Jesus pressed against her heart, and a multitude of virgins, clothed like their glorious queen, formed her train. Our Lord showed her the wish that He had of seeing a congregation of virgins arise, who, placing themselves under the invocation of Mary Immaculate, should take the habit in which His Mother was then clad. He promised the greatest graces to those who should be faithful in following the rules of this new Congregation. Ursula begged Our Lord to shower His favors upon those who, living in the world and devoted to the Blessed Virgin, should live chastely according to their state and wear a blue scapular. To prove to her that her prayer was heard, God showed her, while this blissful vision lasted, angels clothing a great number of Christians with this holy habit.

The indulgences attached to the blue scapular of the Immaculate Conception are innumerable. “As for me,” says St. Alphonsus Liguori, “I would take all scapulars. But above all you must know that the scapular of the Immaculate Conception, which is blessed by the Theatine Fathers, besides all its partial indulgences, has all the indulgences granted to whatever religious order, whatever devotion, whatever person there can be. And particularly that by reciting six times Pater, Ave, and Gloria, in honor of the Most Holy Trinity and Mary Immaculate, can be gained each time all the indulgences of Rome, of Portiuncula, of Jerusalem, and of Galicia, which amounts to 533 plenary indulgences, without speaking of partial indulgences, which are innumerable.” (Glories of Mary. These indulgences have been confirmed by Gregory XVI. in a decree dated July 12, 1845.)

Translation of the Holy House of Loretto, December 10th.—This feast up to this time is not of obligation in the universal Church, but it is celebrated in many countries, and has for its object thanksgiving to God for the blessing with which He has enriched the West, when, in order to compensate it for the loss of the holy sepulchre, He miraculously transported to Catholic ground the house in which the Blessed Virgin received the message of the angel, and where the Word was made flesh. p. 139Many of our readers may be ignorant of this marvellous event, which we will repeat here. It was under the pontificate of Celestine V., and when the Christians had entirely lost the holy places in Palestine, that the little house wherein was wrought the mystery of the Incarnation in the womb of Mary was transported by angels from Nazareth into Dalmatia, or Sclavonia, to a little mountain called Tersato.

The miracles which were wrought every day in this holy house, the legal investigation which the deputies of the country went to Nazareth to make, to prove the translation into Dalmatia, as well as the universal conviction of the people who came to venerate it from all parts of the world, seemed to be incontestable proofs of the truth of the miracle. Nevertheless, God wished to give another, which should have, in a sense, Dalmatia and Italy for witnesses. After three years and seven months the holy house was transported across the Adriatic Sea to the territory of Recanati, into a forest belonging to a lady called Loretta; and this event threw the people of Dalmatia into such desolation that it seemed that they would not survive it, and to console themselves they built upon the same spot a church consecrated to the Mother of God, over the door of which they put this inscription: “Hic est locus in quo fuit sacra Domus Nazarena quæ nunc Recineti partibus colitur.” At the same time there were many inhabitants of Dalmatia who came to Italy to fix their residence near to the holy house.

This new translation made such stirring of Christian hearts that a multitude of pilgrims came from nearly every part of Europe to Recanati, in order to honor the house now called “of Loretto.” To prove more and more fully the truth of this event, the inhabitants of the province sent first to Dalmatia, and then to Nazareth, sixteen persons who were the best qualified for the service, who made in these places new investigations; but God deigned to demonstrate the certainty Himself by renewing twice in succession the miracle of the translation even in the territory of Recanati. For at the end of eight months, the forest of Loretto being infested with highwaymen who stopped the pilgrims, the house was transported to a point a mile further, and placed on a little height which belonged to two brothers of the family of Antici; and when these brothers had taken arms against one another in dispute over the division of the offerings of the pilgrims, the house was transferred to an enclosure a little further removed, and in the midst of the public way, where it has remained and where has since grown up the village called Loretto.

2. Christmas Time

The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin, December 18th.—The origin of this feast goes back to the tenth council of Toledo, in 656. The bishops who composed this holy assembly having found the ancient custom of celebrating the Annunciation on the 25th of March somewhat inconvenient, seeing that most frequently this joyous solemnity, coming in passion time, was transferred to the paschal season, and that these two liturgic periods offered too great contrasts with the mystery of the Word made flesh, they decreed that henceforth the Spanish Church should celebrate a feast in memory of the Annunciation eight days before Christmas, a solemn p. 140feast which should serve as a preparation for the birth of Our Lord. Later the Spanish Church wished to celebrate the feast of the Annunciation on the 25th of March with the universal Church, but nevertheless preserved a vestige of the custom which she had observed for several centuries. She ceased to celebrate the Annunciation of Mary on the 18th of December, but turned the piety of the faithful to the consideration of the divine Mother during the days which immediately preceded her delivery. A new feast was established under the title of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin.

“This feast,” says Dom Guéranger, “which is called Our Lady of the O, because of the great anthems chanted on these days, is celebrated in Spain with great devotion. During the eight days which it lasts a solemn Mass is sung early in the morning, to which all women with child, of whatever rank they may be, make it a duty to assist, to honor Mary in her waiting, and to beg her help for themselves.” (Liturgical Year, “Advent.”)

History of the Feast of Christmas, December 25th.—The birth of Jesus Christ in the stable of Bethlehem, His adoration by the poor shepherds, are the objects of this feast.

Its French name of Noel, often used also in English, especially in old English hymns and carols, is the abridgment of the word Emmanuel, God with us. The prophet had given this name to the Messias, and this great solemnity of the Church saw its accomplishment. In the popular language the word Emmanuel did not remain unaltered; the feast of Emmanuel soon became the feast of Nouel, then Noel. It was at first celebrated with the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, for it was p. 141believed that Jesus Christ was born then. Pope Julius I. having instituted the most exact researches, it was discovered that this great event took place on December 25th, and from that time the feast was transferred to that date; the Epiphany continued to be solemnized on January 6th. This change goes back to the beginning of the fourth century.

This explains a peculiarity of the octave of Christmas, as old as the feast itself; although it is an octave of the first order, it admits solemnities which are excluded from the octaves of Easter and Pentecost. The reason for this goes back to what has just been said. When the birth of the Saviour was celebrated on January 6th, the 26th of December honored St. Stephen, the 27th St. John, and the 28th the Holy Innocents. When the Nativity was finally fixed as the 25th of December, it was thought best not to remove these feasts. It is then in the octave of the Epiphany that the original octave of the Nativity of Our Lord is to be seen; hence it enjoys the same privileges as the other two great feasts of the year, because we count the Sundays after Epiphany, instead of those following Christmas, as those after Easter and Pentecost are counted. (Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, “Christmas.”)

Communion was for a long time obligatory at Christmas and Pentecost as at Easter. As a sign of the great joy brought to the earth by the birth of Emmanuel, abstinence is done away with on Friday when the feast falls upon that day.

The Feast of Christmas at Rome.—On this day the Pope blesses the sword and ducal hat which he sends to the Christian princes who have best served the cause of the Church. At Santa Maria Maggiore, which has the honor of possessing the holy manger, this relic is exposed all day. At St. Anastasia is offered to the veneration of the faithful the veil of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph’s chlamys, or cloak, in which the infant Jesus was wrapped at the moment of His birth.

In the Church of the Agonizing is exposed a piece of the swaddling-bands of Our Lord; at Santa Maria in Trastevere is shown near the high altar the place from which a fountain of oil miraculously burst forth at the birth of the Saviour. Let us add that at St. Lorenzo, beyond the walls, on the feast of St. Stephen, two rocks of his stoning are exposed. On the feast of St. John, at St. John Lateran, is shown the cup from which, at the order of Domitian, the apostle drank poison which did him no harm; the tunic with which he raised from the dead the emperor’s ministers who had tasted the same poison; and the chains with which he was bound when he was brought from Ephesus to Rome.

The Three Masses of Christmas.—“The Catholic faith recognizes three substances in Jesus Christ,” says Innocent III.: “the divinity, the flesh, and the soul. The Scriptures speak of the three births of the Son of God: His divine birth in the bosom of His Father; His birth according to the flesh of the Virgin Mary; His spiritual birth in our souls. The mystery of these three births is represented to us by the three Masses which the Church says. The eternal birth of the Word is completely concealed from us; the prophet says of it: ‘Who could speak it?’ To express these impenetrable mysteries, the first Mass is said during the darkness of the night. The temporal birth of the Saviour is partly p. 142concealed and partly known; hidden as to the manner, known as to the fact. The hour of dawn, consecrated to the second Mass, well recalls this mixture of light and darkness. His spiritual birth is fully light; it is shown by the actions of him who has become the tabernacle of Jesus Christ. These mysteries are expressed in the third Mass, celebrated during the day.” (Inn. III., Serm. iii., in Nativ. Domini.)

Since this is the meaning of the Christmas liturgy, at the first Mass let us adore with the angels the eternal birth of the Word; at the Mass at dawn let us prostrate ourselves with Mary and Joseph before the divine infant in the crib; at the Mass of the day let us join with the shepherds, and make Jesus the offering of a heart in which He may be born.

Christmas Cribs.—The origin of this devotion, practised in the bosom of many Christian families, and in the churches, goes back to St. Francis of Assisi. Three years before his death the saint wished to celebrate at Grecio the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord with all possible solemnity, in order to excite men to the most lively devotion for this mystery. But, to avoid all adverse criticism, he asked the permission of the Sovereign Pontiff, and having obtained it, he had a crib prepared, in which he placed hay and an ox and an ass.

Then the brothers were called together; the people on their part crowded there; the forest re-echoed with cries of joy; the numerous and shining candles lent their light to the holy night, which passed in chants of praise and sweetest hymns. The man of God remained close to the crib, penetrated with the tenderest piety, his face bathed with tears and his soul inundated with happiness. Solemn Mass was celebrated on the crib itself. A worthy soldier, deserving of credence, declared that he saw sleeping in the crib an infant of wonderful beauty, and Francis clasping him in his arms, trying to awaken him from his slumber. This sweet story is from St. Bonaventure, author of the life of St. Francis. (Légende de St. François, ch. x.)

Feast of the Circumcision, January 1st.—This is celebrated on the octave of Christmas. On this day Our Lord received on His innocent flesh the mark of sinful man and the seal of the children of Abraham. At the same time He received the thousandfold blessed name of Jesus. “Why is it,” asks St. Bernard, “that He is circumcised and still called Jesus, that is to say, Saviour? For circumcision is much more for him who needs salvation than for him who saves others. But this connection of the holy name of Jesus with the circumcision is not without its great mystery. It was in the first place to show that this child had not come to save except by blood; then to efface, by the glories of this august name, the apparent ignominy of the circumcision, as the opprobrium of the cross was in some sort effaced by the magnificent inscription over it: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ In fact, if we reflect upon this we shall find that the divine wisdom has nearly always joined in the mysteries of our redemption great abasement with grandeur, and humiliation with exaltation. If the Son of God takes an earthly mother, it is a virgin-mother, incomparably purer than the cherubim and seraphim. If He is born in a stable, He is there announced by angels, recognized by the shepherds, adored by the Magi, and feared by the p. 143proudest of kings. If He is forced to fly into Egypt, miracles make Him respected there, while the blood of the innocents renders His birth celebrated in all Judea. Even His death, wholly infamous as it appears, is made glorious by an eclipse of the sun and by the convulsion of all nature. It is then for the same reason that He is called Jesus in His circumcision. This name makes us consider Him, not as a sinner, but as He who taketh away the sins of the world.” (Serm. on the Circumcision.)

We will speak at greater length of this blessed name when we consider the feast established to honor it.

New Year’s Day.—The feast of the Circumcision opens the civil year. This has not always been the case. In Europe generally, in the fifth century the year began on the 1st of March; in the eighth century the year opened on Christmas day; in the tenth century on Easter. Christian ideas were then dominant in the world. Charles IX., by an edict dated from the château of Roussillon, in Dauphiny, in the year 1564, ordered that it should begin on January 1st. There is something touching in the union of the first day of the year with the holy name of Jesus. That the days that follow may be blessed to us, the Church has marked the first hour with the name of salvation and redemption.

A tradition carries back to Tatius, one of the first kings of Rome, the custom of gifts made upon this day. The courtiers offered to this prince branches of vervain, gathered in the woods sacred to Strenia, the goddess of health, with the intention of calling down upon him her protection in the course of the year just beginning. The offering having brought happiness, the custom became general. Each year the people went into the woods of Strenia to gather vervain, considered by the ancients as a symbol of happiness, health, and affection, and it was offered to those whom they loved. To these gifts of good augury others were soon added of meal, figs, a little piece of money, or a date covered with a light layer of gold-leaf—an expressive wish to the person who received the offering, for by it was shown the desire to call down upon him in the course of the coming year sweetness and abundance in the things necessary to life. These primitive presents were replaced by provisions of all sorts, by clothing, furniture, and pieces of gold or silver. The name of Strenæ was none the less left to the more delicate offerings.

Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th.—This glorious date recalls Our Lord adored by the kings of the East. The feast instituted in honor of this mystery was for a long time blended with that of Christmas, under the name of Theophany, manifestation of God. It took that of Epiphany, or manifestation on manifestation, when the two solemnities were separated. This was really the second manifestation of the Saviour. The first had been to the Jewish people, represented by the shepherds; the second was for the Gentiles, the first-fruits of whom were brought to Jesus in the persons of the Magi. Following a venerable tradition, to which the painters of the catacombs gave an important authority, the Magi were three in number. “These,” says Dom Guéranger, “are the veritable ancestors of the gentile Church. One was from Chaldea, the second from Arabia, the third from Ethiopia. They represented at the crib the three races of p. 144humanity offering their homage to the new-born King.” (The Liturgical Year, “Christmas.”)

The Gospel speaks of their presents: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This mysterious number honored in the first place the Blessed Trinity in the Person of the Word Incarnate, but it also prophesied the triple character of the divine infant. He had come into the world to reign, and gold witnessed to His supreme power; He was to exercise a sovereign priesthood—frankincense, which should smoke in the priest’s hand, was a present worthy of Him; His death would open heaven—myrrh, a perfume reserved in ancient times to embalming, was there for the burial of the divine victim. “Where,” asks St. Leo, “had they discovered the inspired nature of these gifts, these men who had not yet seen Jesus? While the star shone on the eyes of their bodies, more penetrating still did the ray of God’s light illumine their hearts.” (Serm. on the Epiph.)

As to their names of Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar, their use is too recent for us to adopt them. It would be as difficult to sustain the responsibility of doing so as it would seem to us bold to attack them directly. Their bodies, transported from Persia to Constantinople, and later from Milan to Cologne, rest to-day in the cathedral of that great metropolis, in a magnificent shrine, the most beautiful monument of the goldsmith’s skill of the Middle Ages. (Guéranger.)

The date of the 6th of January recalls to the love of the Church still other memories. On this day Our Lord, baptized by John, heard the voice of the Father proclaiming His divinity; on this same day He worked His first miracle in Cana, and St. Augustine tells us that the 6th p. 145of January was also the day of the miraculous multiplication of the five loaves in the desert. (Serm. i., de Epiph.)

All these events make this feast the great manifestation of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and fully justify its name of Epiphany. However, the preference of the Roman Church is for the mystery of the calling of the gentiles. Nothing is more natural, since that mystery is supremely glorious for her. For has not Rome, the capital of paganism, become the head of Christianity by the vocation which on that day called all the nations to the light of the true faith?

The two other mysteries, the baptism of Our Lord and the wedding at Cana, have nevertheless a memorial in the office. Besides this the Church has consecrated a particular day to their celebration: the octave of the Epiphany to the baptism of Our Lord, and the second Sunday after Epiphany to the wedding at Cana.

The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves is not mentioned in the liturgy except in Lent.

In spite of the solemnity of this feast, its vigil is not a fast. We have not forgotten that formerly it made one feast with Christmas. Since their separation, the memory of their union has been preserved by a vigil and fast in common.

It would seem that the celebration of marriages, forbidden during the Advent period of mourning and penitence, would be resumed after the joyous feast of the Nativity. Why is the prohibition prolonged until after the octave of the Epiphany? Again, it is a trace of the ancient discipline. Christmas being celebrated on the 6th of January, the solemnizing of marriages was banished from the liturgy to the end of the octave, January 13th.

The kings of France, up to the fourteenth century, presented as the offering of this day gold, incense, and myrrh. In the Middle Ages the faithful offered them also, to have them blessed, and they then preserved them as a pledge of heavenly favors. This pious custom still exists in Germany.

Some authors have thought that they saw in the popular family festival of Epiphany a relic of paganism. It would seem to us more natural that our fathers wished to symbolize in the festival the wedding at Cana, and in the old custom of the king of the Twelfth-Night cake, the kings at the crib. A custom preserved in the mountains of Scotland comes to the support of this opinion. Instead of the bean in the Twelfth-Night cake, these people use a bit of myrrh, a grain of incense, and a piece of gold.

Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.—Pope Clement VII. instituted this feast in the year 1530, at the request of the Friars Minor.

Our Lord was announced under many names by the prophets; He is called Admirable, the Counsellor, the strong God, Emmanuel, Prince of peace; and only the name of Jesus sees all heads bow and a feast established in its honor. Why this privilege? The name of Jesus, and that alone, comprises all that the others say; at the name of Jesus is presented to the mind all the mysteries of the redemption; the thirty-three years of Our Lord’s life are unrolled then before our eyes, with their labor, their anguish, their sufferings. This name shows us all, from the crib to the cross. Let us take care not to think p. 146that it is to the name itself that the Church has consecrated a feast. The object of this solemnity will be explained to us by the following passage from an ancient breviary: “And now comes, beloved brothers, the great solemnity in which our holy mother the Church honors at the same time all the mysteries of the universal redemption which are kept on the different dates of the Christian year. The word Jesus means Saviour. Let us apply ourselves, then, in the solemnity of this divine name, to the reparation of all the faults of negligence or weakness committed on each one of the feasts of Our Saviour, that at least once a year we may venerate by the solemnities of our hymns and our canticles a name so salutary. And that which we begin on earth may we continue eternally in heaven!”

The object of the feast being known, let us say something of the indulgences attached to the name of Jesus. For a long time the Angelical Salutation ended at the words: “Et benedictus fructus ventris tui” (“And blessed is the fruit of thy womb”). By the authority of Urban IV. was added the name of Jesus, and an indulgence of thirty days was granted to all those who pronounce it in saying the Ave Maria. To increase the piety of the faithful, John XXII. accorded thirty days more indulgence. (Mich. de Insulis, In quodlibeto de Rosario, c. 5.) Later Sixtus V. opened the treasury of the Church to all those who invoked the name of Jesus. This indulgence was of twenty-five days. At the hour of death those who, having been faithful during life to invoke this name, pronouncing it then with the lips or the heart, may gain a plenary indulgence. (Decree of June 12, 1587.)

The piety of the faithful is not satisfied to have unceasingly on the lips the name of Jesus; it delights in engraving it upon stone and cutting it in the sacred ornaments. It has invented a monogram, that is to say, a sort of figure which contains the letters of this name interlaced into one character. It was composed of its first three letters: IHS. This monogram comes to us from the Greeks, as the first two letters attest. The Latin form of the last letter is explained when we know that the Greeks of the Lower Empire used it frequently. The Latins placed a cross over the second letter, as if to say that Jesus has saved us by the cross. St. Bernardine of Sienna made this monogram popular. He constantly wore it on his chest, surrounded by shining rays of gold. This relic, religiously preserved in Rome in the Church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, is exposed every year, on the feast of the saint, to the veneration of the faithful.

Purification of the Blessed Virgin and Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, February 2d.—The name alone shows the object of this feast: Mary submitting to the purification prescribed by Moses, and making the offering to God of her divine Son.

The Church, by a solemn procession, honors the journey of the Holy Family to Jerusalem, and by the blessing of candles the manifestation of that Divine Light which Simeon sung. This last ceremony gave to the feast its popular name of Candlemas. In the hand of the Christian, the blessed candle symbolizes Jesus Christ, Whom the holy old man Simeon had the happiness to hold in his arms. (See what has been previously said of candles, page 3.)

Purple, the color of mourning, worn in the blessing of candles and the procession, and saddening the joys of this feast, well expresses the sadness of Mary’s heart when Simeon announced to her “that a sword of sorrow should pierce her heart.” For the Mass the Church wears white, the color of joy, in remembrance of the joys of that day when, for the first time, the Messias received solemn homage. The manger had seen the shepherds and Magi prostrate at His feet, but to-day the Temple hears Him proclaimed the Light of nations and the glory of Israel.