From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

Prope est jam Dominus; venite, adoremus.

The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore.

The Church does not read anything from the prophet Isaias to-day; she merely gives, in the Office of Matins, a sentence of that chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, which relates the mystery of our Lady’s Visitation: and to this she subjoins a fragment of St. Ambrose’s homily upon that passage. The considerations and affections with which this important event of our Lady’s life ought to inspire the faithful, will be given further on in the proper of the saints.

The Station for to-day is in the church of the Holy Apostles, which many suppose to have been first built by Constantine. The glorious bodies of the two holy apostles Philip and James the Less, lie buried under the altar, awaiting the second coming of Him who chose them as His co-operators in the work of the first, and who will give them, on the last day, to sit upon thrones near His own, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.[1]

That we may better conform to the intentions of our holy mother the Church, who offers to our contemplation the Visitation of the blessed Virgin, let us recite the following hymn, composed in honour of this mystery during the ages of faith.

A Prose in Honour of the Blessed Virgin
(Taken from the ancient Roman-French missals)

Ave, Verbi Dei parens,
Virginis humilitas.
Ave, omni nodo carons,
Humilis virginitas.

Gaude, quæ sic gravidaris
Nec gravaris Filio:
Gaude quae sic oneraris
Onere gratissimo.

Salve, Jesse stirpe orta
Virgula fructifera.
Salve, clausa templi porta,
Soli Deo pervia.

Plaude, vellus Gedeonis,
Rore madens Pneumatis.
Plaude, pellis Salomonis,
Pulchrior præ cæteris.

Vale, Jacob micans stella,
Circumlustrans maria.
Vale consignata cella,
Rubus in vi flammea.

Euge, sole quod amicta
Solem gignis stellula.
Euge, quod sis præelecta,
Scala cœli fulgida.

Pange, aurora consurgens
Luce novi sideris;
Pange, arca trina ferens
Charismata miseris.

Eia! magnificat tua
Jesum Christum anima;
Eia! tecum ut laudemus
Ora, dulcis Maria.

Amen.

Hail, Mother
of the divine Word!
Hail, most humble
and most spotless Virgin!

Rejoice, thou Mother
of a Son who supports thee!
Rejoice, thy burden is a burden
most sweet to bear!

Hail, branch of Jesse,
Fruit-bearing branch!
Hail gate of the temple,
closed to all but God!

Be glad, thou fleece of Gedeon,
full of the dew of the holy Spirit!
Be glad, thou tent of Solomon,
of all the first in beauty!

Hail, shining star of Jacob,
lighting up the sea!
Hail, thou sealed-up sanctuary,
thou burning bush!

What bliss is thine, that thou the humble star
shouldst be clad with the Sun, and then bring forth the Sun!
What bliss is thine, that thou shouldst be elected
the bright ladder reaching up to heaven!

Sing to thy God,
thou aurora rising in the light of the new Star!
Sing, thou ark of the covenant,
bearing unto us sinners thy three treasures.

Oh! let thy soul magnify Jesus!
and oh! sweet Mary,
pray that, with thee,
we too may magnify him.

Amen.

Prayer from the Gallican Sacramentary
(In Adventu Domini, Collect)

Purifica, Domine Deus, Pater omnipotens, pectorum arcana nostrorum, cunctasque propitius maculas ablue peccatorum: ao præsta, Domine, ut benedictione pietatis tuæ a nostris criminibus mundati, metuendum terribilemque adventum Domini nostri Jesu Christi exspectemus interriti.

O Lord God, Father almighty, purify the recesses of our heart, and mercifully wash away all the stains of our sins; and grant, O Lord, that, cleansed from our sins by thy merciful blessing, we may await in confidence the dread and terrible coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[1] St. Matt. xix. 28.

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

Prope est jam Dominus; venite, adoremus.

The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore.

To-day the Church begins the fast of Quatuor Tempora, or, as we call it, of Ember days: it includes also the Friday and Saturday of this same week. This observance is not peculiar to the Advent liturgy; it is one which has been fixed for each of the four seasons of the ecclesiastical year. We may consider it as one of those practices which the Church took from the Synagogue; for the prophet Zacharias speaks of the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months.[1] Its introduction into the Christian Church would seem to have been made in the apostolic times; such, at least, is the opinion of St. Leo, of St. Isidore of Seville, of Rabanus Maurus, and of several other ancient Christian writers. It is remarkable, on the other hand, that the orientals do not observe this fast.

From the first ages the Quatuor Tempora were kept, in the Roman Church, at the same time of the year as at present. As to the expression, which is not unfrequently used in the early writers, of the three times and not the four, we must remember that in the spring, these days always come in the first week of Lent, a period already consecrated to the most rigorous fasting and abstinence, and that consequently they could add nothing to the penitential exercises of that portion of the year.

The intentions, which the Church has in the fast of the Ember days, are the same as those of the Synagogue; namely, to consecrate to God by penance the four seasons of the year. The Ember days of Advent are known, in ecclesiastical antiquity, as the fast of the tenth month; and St. Leo, in one of his sermons on this fast, of which the Church has inserted a passage in the second nocturn of the third Sunday of Advent, tells us that a special fast was fixed for this time of the year, because the fruits of the earth had then all been gathered in, and that it behoved Christians to testify their gratitude to God by a sacrifice of abstinence, thus rendering themselves more worthy to approach to God, the more they were detached from the love of created things. 'For fasting,’ adds the holy doctor, 'has ever been the nourishment of virtue. Abstinence is the source of chaste thoughts, of wise resolutions, and of salutary counsel. By voluntary mortifications, the flesh dies to its concupiscences, and the spirit is renewed in virtue. But since fasting alone is not sufficient whereby to secure the soul’s salvation, let us add to it works of mercy towards the poor. Let us make that which we retrench from indulgence, serve unto the exercise of virtue. Let the abstinence of him that fasts, become the meal of the poor man.’

Let us, the children of the Church, practise what is in our power of these admonitions; and since the actual discipline of Advent is so very mild, let us be so much the more fervent in fulfilling the precept of the fast of the Ember days. By these few exercises which are now required of us, let us keep up within ourselves the zeal of our forefathers for this holy season of Advent. We must never forget that although the interior preparation is what is absolutely essential for our profiting by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, yet this preparation could scarcely be real unless it manifested itself by the exterior practices of religion and penance.

The fast of the Ember days has another object besides that of consecrating the four seasons of the year to God by an act of penance: it has also in view the ordination of the ministers of the Church, which takes place on the Saturday, and of which notice was formerly given to the people during the Mass of the Wednesday. In the Roman Church, the ordination held in the month of December was, for a long time, the most solemn of all; and it would appear, from the ancient chronicles of the Popes, that, excepting very extraordinary cases, the tenth month was, for several ages, the only time for conferring Holy Orders in Rome. The faithful should unite with the Church in this her intention, and offer to God their fasting and abstinence for the purpose of obtaining worthy ministers of the word and of the Sacraments, and true pastors of the people.

The Church does not read anything, in the Matins of to-day, from the prophet Isaias: she merely reads a sentence from the chapter of St. Luke, which gives our Lady’s Annunciation, to which she subjoins a passage from St. Ambrose’s Homily on that Gospel. The fact of this Gospel having been chosen for the Office and Mass of to-day, has made the Wednesday of the third week of Advent a very marked day in the calendar. In several ancient Ordinaries, used by many of the larger churches, both cathedral and abbatial, we find it prescribed that feasts falling on this Wednesday should be transferred: that the ferial prayers should not be said kneeling on that day; that the Gospel Missus est, that is, of the Annunciation, should be sung at Matins by the celebrant vested in a white cope, with cross, lights, and incense, the great bell tolling meanwhile; that in abbeys, the abbot should preach a homily to the monks, as on solemn feasts. We are indebted to this custom for the four magnificent sermons of St. Bernard on our blessed Lady, which are entitled: Super Missus est.

As the Mass of the Ember days is seldom sung, excepting in churches where the canonical Office is said, as also that we might not add unnecessarily to this volume, we have thought it advisable to omit the Masses of Ember Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of Advent. The Station for the Wednesday is at St. Mary Major, on account of the Gospel of the Annunciation, which, as we have just seen, has caused this day to be looked upon as a real feast of the blessed Virgin.

Having to speak, later on, of this mystery, in the proper of saints, we will conclude this Wednesday with a prose of the middle ages, in honour of our blessed Lady’s receiving the angel’s salutation, and with a prayer taken from one of the ancient liturgies.

Prose in Honour of the Blessed Virgin
(Taken from the missal of Cluny of 1523.)

Angelus ad Virginem
Subintrans in conclavi,
Virginis formidinem
Demulcens, inquit ei:

Ave, Regina virginum,
Cœli terraeque Dominum
Concipies et paries,

Intacta,
Salutem hominum;
Tu porta cœli facta,
Medela criminum

Quomodo conciperom,
Quæ virum non cognovi?
Qualiter infringerem
Quæ firma mente vovi?

Spiritus sancti gratia
Perficiet haec omnia:
Ne timeas, sed gaudeas,

Secura
Quod castimonia
Manebit in te pura,
Dei potentia.

Ad hæc Virgo nobilis
Respondens inquit ei:
Servula sum humilis
Omnipotentis Dei.

Tibi cœlesti nuncio,
Tanti secreti conscio,
Consentiens, et cupiens

Videre
Factum quod audio,
Parata sum parere
Dei consilio.

Angelus disparuit,
Et statim puellaris
Uterus intumuit,
Vi partus virginalis.

Qui circumdatus utero,
Novem mensium numero,
Hinc exiit et iniit

Conflictum,
Affigens humero crucem,
Quæ dedit ictum
Hosti mortifero.

Eia! Mater Domini,
Quæ pacem reddidisti
Angelo et homini,
Quando Christum genuisti;

Tuum exora Filium
Ut se nobis propitium
Exhibeat, et deleat

Peccata,
Præstans auxilium
Vita frui beata,
Post hoc exsilium.

Amen.

The angel,
entering the Virgin’s chamber,
and gently bidding her not to fear,
says to her:

Hail, Queen of virgins!
thou shalt conceive in thy womb
the Lord of heaven and earth;

and still remaining a Virgin,
thou shalt bring forth the salvation of mankind,
O gate of heaven bringing to the world
the remedy of its iniquities!

How shall this be, replied the Virgin,
for I know not man?
How wouldst thou have me
break the vow which I have sworn to keep?

The grace of the Holy Ghost
shall accomplish all these things, said the angel.
Fear not, but rejoice.

I assure thee thy virginity
shall be left intact:
the power of God
shall maintain it.

To this the noble Virgin answering,
said to the angel:
I am the lowly handmaid
of the omnipotent God.

Consenting to thy word,
O heavenly messenger,
bearer of so great a secret,

and desiring to see fulfilled
what thou announcest,
I am ready to obey
the decree of God.

The angel left her,
and in that moment her virginal womb conceived
the Word made flesh
from hers.

This was his chosen enclosure
for nine months:
then he left it, and began

the great combat,
carrying the cross upon his shoulders,
wherewith he struck the enemy who brought death into the world.

O dear Mother of Jesus,
who didst bring peace
to angels and to men
by giving birth to Christ,

Pray for us to this thy Son,
that he be merciful to us,
and forgive us

our sins,
and give us his assistance,
whereby, after this exile,
we may possess the blessed joys of eternal life.

Amen.

Prayer from the Mozarabic Missal
(Second Sunday of Advent, Illatio)

Dignum et justum est; vere æquum et salutare est, Domini nostri Jesu Christi adventum in mirabilibus praedicare: quem inter homines nasciturum cœlestis nuntius nunciavit. Virgo terrena dum salutaretur audivit: Spiritus sanctus in utero, dum veniret creavit, ut Gabriele dicente, Maria credente, Dei Verbo Spiritu co-operante, sequeretur salutationem angelicam securitas, promissionem perficeret veritas; ut Altissimi obumbrante virtute, didicisset se esse fœcundam virginitas. Ecce concipies in utero, et paries filium, angelus prædicavit; et: Quomodo fiet istud, Maria respondit. Sed quia haec credendo, non dubitando respondit, implevit Spiritus sanctus quod angelus spopondit. Virgo ante conceptum, Virgo semper futura post partum, Deum suum prius mente, dehinc ventre concepit; salutem mundi prima suscepit Virgo plena gratia Dei, et ideo vera Mater Filii Dei.

It is meet and just, truly right and available to salvation that we should extol the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as one of the highest of God’s wonderful works. A heavenly messenger announced that he would be born among men. A Virgin, dwelling on this earth, was saluted by the angel, and heard the great mystery. The Holy Ghost produced it in the Virgin’s womb, when he came to her. So that thus, Gabriel announcing, Mary believing, and the Spirit co-operating with the Word of God, confidence followed the angelical salutation, and the promise was fulfilled by the reality that the Virgin should find herself to be made a mother, by the power of the Most High overshadowing her. Behold, said the angel, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son. How shall this be? answered Mary. But because she said it from faith, not from doubt, the Holy Ghost accomplished what the angel promised. Virgin before the conception, and Virgin after the birth of her Son, she had received her God in her soul, before possessing him in her womb. Virgin full of the grace of God, she was the first to receive the salvation of the world, and therefore was chosen to be the true Mother of the Son of God.

[1] Zach. viii. 19.

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

Prope est jam Dominus; venite, adoremus.

De Isaia Propheta.

Ch. xxxiii.

Domine, miserere nostri: te enim exspectavimus: esto brachium nostrum in mane, et salus nostra in tempore tribulationis. A voce angeli fugerunt populi, et ab exaltatione tua dispersæ sunt Gentes. Et congregabuntur spolia vestra sicut colligitur bruchus, velut cum fossæplenæ fuerint de eo. Magnifìcatus est Dominus, quoniam habitavit in excelso: implevit Sion judicio et justitia. Et erit fides in temporibus tuis: divitiæ salutis sapientia et scientia: timor Domini ipse est thesaurus ejus. Conterriti sunt in Sion peccatores: possedit tremor hypocritas. Quis poterit habitare de vobis cum igne devorante? quis habitabit ex vobis cum ardoribus sempiternis? Qui ambulat in justitiis, et loquitur veritatem, qui projicit avaritiam ex calumnia, et excutit manus suas ab omni' munere, qui obturat aures suas ne audiat sanguinem, et claudit oculos suos ne videat malum. Iste in excelsis habitabit, munimonta saxorum sublimitas ejus:panis ei datus est, aquæ cjus fideles sunt. Regem in decore suo videbunt oculi ejus: cernent terram de longe.

The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore.

Prom the Prophet Isaias.

Cap. xxxiii.

O Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for thee: be thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of trouble. At the voice of the angel the people fled, and at the lifting up thyself the nations arc scattered. And your spoils shall be gathered together as the locusts are gathered, as when the ditches are full of them. The Lord is magnified, for he hath dwelt on high: he hath filled Sion with judgement and justice. And there shall be faith in thy times, riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is his treasure. The sinners in Sion are afraid: trembling hath seized upon the hypocrites. Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting burning? He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil. He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks shall be his highness: bread is given him, his waters are sure. His eyes shall see the king in his beauty; they shall see the land far off.

Happy he whose eyes shall thus contemplate the new-born King in the sweet majesty of His love and His humility! He shall be so taken with this His beauty, that the earth, with all its magnificence, shall appear as nothing in his eyes. The only thing he will care to look upon, will be the Child laid in a manger, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. But, that we may have this happiness of closely contemplating the divine King who is coming to us, that we may merit to enter His court, we must do as the prophet bids us: we must walk in justice, and speak truth. Let us listen to the pious Rabanus Maurus, who expresses this, with much unction, in his first sermon on preparation for the feast of Christmas: ‘If at all times it behoves us to be adorned with the comeliness of good works, we should be so, with an especial care, on the day of our Saviour’s birth. Consider within yourselves, my brethren, what you would do, were a king, or prince, to invite you to come to celebrate his birthday. Your garments would be as new, as elegant, even as magnificent, as you could procure them, for you would think it an insult to him who invited you, were you to appear before him with anything upon you that was tom, or poor, or unclean. Show a like solicitude on the occasion of the coming feast: and let your souls, beautified with the several ornaments of virtue, go forth to their King. He loves the pearls of simplicity, and the flowers of chaste sobriety: wear them therefore. Let your consciences be composed in a holy calm, now that the solemn feast of Jesus’ Nativity is so close upon us. Assist at it lovely in your chastity, gorgeous in your charity, beauteous by your almsdeeds, brilliant with justice and humility, and, above all, radiant in the love of God. If the Lord Jesus shall see you thus when you keep His feast, believe me, He will do more than visit your souls; He will treat you with such familiarity, that He will choose them for His favourite abode, and there He will dwell for ever, as it is written: Behold! I will come, and I will dwell with them and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.’ Christians, you have no time to lose: quickly prepare yourselves for this great visit. Let sinners be converted and become just: let the just become more just; let the holy become more holy, for He that is coming is the Lord our God, and none else.

Prose for the Time of Advent
(Composed in the eleventh century, and taken from the ancient Roman-French missals)

Jubilemus omnes una, Deo nostro qui creavit omnia;
Per quem condita sunt sæcula;
Cœlum quod plurima luce coruscat, et diversa sidera;
Sol mundi schema, noctium decus luna, cunctaque splendentia;
Mare, solum, alta, plana, et profunda flumina;
Aeris ampla spatia: quæ discurrunt aves, venti atque pluvia.
Haec simul cuncta tibi soli Deo Patri militant.
Nunc et in ævum, sine fine per sæcula:
Laus eorum tua gloria:
Qui pro salute nostra Prolem unicam,
Pati in terra misisti sine culpa, sed ob nostra delicta.
Te, sancta Trinitas, precamur, ut corpora nostra et corda regas et protegas, et dones peccatorum veniam. Amen.

Let us sing together to our God, who created all things;
By whom all ages were made;
The firmament, which shines with much light, and the countless stars;
The sun, the ornament of the world; the moon, which is the night’s beauty; and all shining things;
The sea, the land, the hills, the plains, and the deep rivers;
The wide space of the air, through which float birds, and winds, and rain;
All these obey thee alone, O God, as their Maker and King.
Now and evermore, for endless ages:
Their praise is thy glory;
Who for our salvation didst send thine only-begotten Son,
In whom could be no sin, to suffer on earth for our sins.
We beseech thee, O holy Trinity, to govern and protect our souls and bodies, and grant us forgiveness of cur sins. Amen.

Prayer from the Ambrosian Missal
(Second Sunday of Advent, Præfatio)

Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, æterne Deus, per Christum Dominum nostrum: cujus Incarnatione salus facta est mundi, et Passione redemptio procurata est hominis procreati. Ipse nos, quæsumus, ad æternum perducat præmium, qui redemit nos de tenebris infernorum: justificetque in adventu secundo, qui nos redemit in primo: quatenus illius nos a malis omnibus defendat sublimitas, cujus nos ad vitam erexit humilitas.

It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always and in all places, give thanks to thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, through Christ our Lord: by whose Incarnation has been wrought the salvation of the world, and by whose Passion has been purchased the redemption of his creature man. Grant, we beseech thee, that he, who redeemed us from the dark prison of hell, may lead us to the rewards which are eternal; and justify us in his second coming, who redeemed us in the first: that thus, he, whose humility exalted us unto life, may by his most high majesty shield us from all evil.

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

Prope est jam Dominus: venite, adoremus.

De Isaia Propheta.

Cap. xxviii.

Hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Ecce ego mittam in fundamentis Sion lapidem, lapidem probatum, angularem, pretiosum, in fundamento randatum. Qui crediderit, non festinet. Et ponam in pondere judicium, et justitiam in mensura, et subvertet grando spem mendacii, et protectionem aquæ inundabunt. Et delebitur fœdus vestrum cum morte, et pactum vestrum cum inferno non stabit.

 

The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore.

From the Prophet Isaias.

Ch. xxviii.

Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner-stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten. And I will set judgement in weight, and justice in measure; and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood, and waters shall overflow its protection. And your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not stand.

Heavenly Father! Thou art preparing to set in the foundations of Sion a corner-stone, that is tried and solid; and this stone, which is to give firmness to Sion Thy Church, is Thy Incarnate Son. It was prefigured, as Thy apostle assures us,[1] by that rock of the desert, which yielded the abundant and saving stream that quenched the thirst of Thy people. But now Thou art about to give us the reality; it has already come down from heaven, and the hour is fast approaching when Thou wilt lay it in the foundations. O sacred Stone, which makest all one, and givest solidity to the whole structure! By Thee it will come to pass, that there shall be no longer Jew or Gentile, but all nations shall become one family. Men shall no more build on sand, nor set up houses which floods and storms may overturn. The Church shall rise up from the stone which God now sets, and, secure on the great foundation, her summit shall touch the clouds. With all his weakness, and all his fickleness, man will partake of Thy immutability, O divine Stone, if he will but lean on Thee. Woe to him that rejects Thee, for Thou hast said, and Thou art the eternal Truth: 'Whosoever shall fall upon that stone, shall be bruised; and upon whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.’[2] From this twofold evil, O Thou that art chief corner-stone, deliver us, and never permit us to be of the number of those blind men who rejected Thee. Give us grace ever to honour and love Thee as the cause of our strength, and the one sole origin of our solidity: and since Thou hast communicated this Thy quality of the rock to one of Thine apostles, and by him to his successors unto the end of the world, grant us ever to cling to this rock, the holy Roman Church, in union with which all the faithful on the face of the earth are preparing to celebrate the glorious solemnity of Thy coming, O precious and tried Stone! Thou art coming, that Thou mayst destroy the kingdom of falsehood, and break the league which mankind had made with death and hell.

Hymn for Advent
(In the Mozarabic breviary, first Sunday of Advent)

Christi caterva clamitet,
Rerum parenti proximas
Quas esse sentit gratias,
Laudesque promat maximas.

Vatum poli oracula
Perfecit olim tradita,
Cum nos redemit unicus
Factoris orbis Filius.

Verbum profectum, proditum,
Tulit reatum criminum,
Sumensque nostrum pulverem,
Mortis peremit principem.

A matre natus tempore,
Sed sempiternus a Patre,
Duabus in substantiis,
Persona sola est Numinis.

Venit Deus factus homo,
Nitescat ut cultu novo
Renatus in nato Deo,
Factus novus vetus homo.

Natalis hinc ob gaudium,
Ovans trophæo, gentium
Renata plebs per gratiam
Hæc festa præbet annua.

Adventus hic solemnibus
Votis feratur omnibus,
Quos sustinere convenit,
Tanti diei gloriam.

Secundus ut cum coeperit,
Orbemque terror presserit;
Succurrat hæc humillima
Susceptionis dignitas.

Deo Patri sit gloria,
Ejusque soli Filio,
Cum Spiritu Paraclito,
In sempiterna sæcula.

Amen.

Let all the assembly of Christ’s faithful ones
laud the graces that are nigh,
and sing their highest praises
to their Creator.

When his only begotten Son,
who created this world, redeemed us,
he fulfilled the promises
which the heavensent prophets spoke in the ages past.

The Word having come down from heaven,
and shown himself to men,
took away the punishment due to their sins;
and assuming our nature, though but dust, he vanquished the prince of death.

Born of a Mother in time,
but begotten eternally from the Father,
in the two substances there is but one Person,
that is the Person of the Word.

God has come into this world made man,
that our old man being changed into the new,
we may put on new beauty
by being regenerated in the new-born God.

Let the Gentiles, who have received this new birth of grace,
in gladness and exultation
at the trophy won by the divine Nativity,
keep every year its feast.

Let this coming of Jesus
be celebrated with devout solemnity by all,
who have so just a share
in the glory of this great day.

That so, when the second coming
shall burst upon the world and fill it with fear,
this most humble expression
of our devout celebration of the first may give us confidence.

To God the Father,
and to his only Son,
and to the holy Spirit,
be glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

Prayer from the Ambrosian Missal
(In the Mass of the sixth Sunday of Advent, Preface).

Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos beatæ semper Virginis Mariæ solemnia celebrare, quæ parvo utero Dominum cœli portavit; et, angelo praenuntiante, Verbum came mortali edidit Salvatorem. Hic est mundi Redemptor, castis conceptus visceribus; clausa ingrediens, et clausa relinquens.

It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that in this holy time wo should celebrate the memory of the ever blessed Virgin Mary, who carried in the narrow inclosure of her womb the Lord of heaven, and who, according as the angel had foretold her, brought forth the Word become our Saviour in our mortal flesh. This is he who is the Redeemer of the world, conceived in a chaste womb, his Mother both then and at his birth remaining ineffably the Virgin.

[1] 1 Cor. x. 4.
[2] St. Matt. xxi. 44.