
![]() Book 1, Advent LORETO PUBLISHING Dom Guéranger OSB First Translation: 1867 |
(If this Sunday should fall on December 24, it is omitted, and in its place is said the Office of Christmas Eve, which is not provided here.)
WE have now entered into the week which immediately precedes the birth of the Messias. That long-desired coming might be even tomorrow; and at furthest, that is, when Advent is as long as it can be, the beautiful feast is only seven days from us. So that the Church now counts the hours; she watches day and night, and since December 17 her Offices have assumed an unusual solemnity. At Lauds, she varies the antiphons each day; and at Vespers, in order to express the impatience of her desires for her Jesus, she makes use of the most vehement exclamations to the Messias, in which she each day gives Him a magnificent title, borrowed from the language of the prophets.
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