Keeping Advent Well
There is a remnant of the former ways in the Church, in this church where there is no sign of Christmas, where the vestments are a sober purple and the music and prayers still honour the traditional character of Advent. This special liturgical tone is especially evident in the readings from the Bible, with their spirit of expectation which is the defining note of the season. The figures who address us there are the epitome of longing desire: Isaiah the prophet, who speaks of future appearance of the suffering servant who was to save Israel; John the Baptist who, in today’s Gospel, is identified as the precursor of that Saviour; and Our Lady, pregnant with the Incarnate Word, waiting in silence and hope for the birth of Jesus, the Messiah. Each, in his own way, reminds us that we too are waiting for the twofold coming of Christ: to each one by grace here and now, and one day in glory at the end of time. On Christmas day, consequently, in our public worship, we shall celebrate the birth of Jesus in history and also the promise implicit in his first coming that he will come again. It is only with the feast-day itself that we begin our celebrations, which traditionally continued until twelfth night, the feast of the Epiphany, on 6 January. That, incidentally was the day we took down Christmas decorations—the tree, mistletoe, wreaths and other such items—and put them away for another year.s there anything more tedious than an old man reminiscing? If that is so, prepare to be bored, for this Sunday and the entire Advent season send my mind back to the distant past, the way things were seventy-five or eighty years ago. . . . and how different they were from what we know today.
The sombre spirit of the Church’s liturgy determined the tone of the pre-Christmas season in the home. No Christmas decorations were taken out until Christmas eve when the tree—an actual fir—was set up and decorated. Only then were presents brought out from hiding and placed under it. Christmas eve was a day of fast and abstinence, i.e., a meatless day of frugal meals. Turkey and plum pudding were reserved for the day itself. Mass was at midnight, not at five, seven and nine the day before. At that splendid Mass we heard for the first time the Christmas hymns that nowadays bombard us from all sides, with the result that by Christmas day one can hardly bear to hear even one more. Today, the commercial aspects of Christmas dominate, not only shops but even our homes, with trees set up and lights ablaze starting from Halloween. It’s no wonder that on the twenty-sixth trees and wrapping are discarded with a weary disgust; we are glad finally to be free from the artificial frenzy and the forced gaiety of the commercial celebration.
It must be admitted that Advent has largely disappeared. There are Christmas parties everywhere in December. Simply go down any street after dark; you will see houses aglow with shimmering lights and Santa Claus, Rudolf and Frosty presiding over the front yards. Even in the Church where, aside from Sunday Mass, we find Christmas concerts and pageants that ignore and so destroy the authentic meaning of Advent. What should be our response to this cultural shift? Should the Church respond to the changing times and alter the liturgical calendar so as to transform Advent into Christmas and then revert to ordinary time with a thud the next day?
It will hardly surprise you that I think not; and I do so for two reasons. First, there is something soothing to know that when you come to church in December you have a haven from the blatant and aggressively commercial attitude universally present elsewhere. Here, at least, can one experience the religious reminder that many if not most people are still ignorant of the advent of the Messiah, either because they have abandoned belief or have not yet encountered it. My second reason for recommending the retention of the quiet, sombre character of Advent is to note that the “world,” as Scripture would say, by which I mean our secular society, is not really observing Christmas at all, even where the name of the feast has not been altered to “Happy Holidays!” or “Best wishes for the season.” People are really celebrating a winter festival, something akin to the ancient Romans who, it seems, wondered if the ever-shorter winter days might not after all end in total and permanent darkness. Hence, lights were used to dispel the psychological as well as the physical gloom. And when, at the end of the month the sun reversed its course and days lengthened, they celebrated sol invictus, the unconquered sun. This primitive sensitivity to the changing seasons, and in particular, to winter, remains in us. So, put up you lights and hope against hope that again this year the sun will return after the winter solstice. But reserve as well your willingness to re-experience, with ancient Israel, with John the Baptist and with the Blessed Virgin, night before dawn in the heightened awareness that we are always in need of, are always awaiting the full advent of Jesus, the Christ into our own lives and into the world.
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000 1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
First Holy Communion: Sermon from May 16, 1943
Here is a sermon from the good old days by +Rev. Msgr. Vincent Nicholas Foy (August 14, 1915 – March 13, 2017), from 1943. Readers may recall that Pope Saint Pius X, by the decree Quam Singulari in 1910, lowered the customary age of reception of Holy Communion – after the rigours of the plague[…]Continue reading→
In the Glorious Light of Easter, Alleluia!
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory (Col. 3:3-4). The Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour[…]Continue reading→
An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday
The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is one of waiting, in silence, as the world wonders – anticipates – what will happen, after the death of Christ. We re-live this time each year in the anamnesis of our liturgy, and in turn look forward to the glorious re-creation of all things at the[…]Continue reading→
Europe’s Long Descent
(As we meditate on this day on Christ’s burial, and His descent into hell, it is fitting to ponder here with contributor Peter Marcus how the world seems to be heading there as well. The difference is that, although God cannot ‘redeem’ hell, nor those therein, He can and did redeem the world. There is[…]Continue reading→