Sunday, December 20, 2020
Fourth Antiphon
Fourth Antiphon(Listen to the Chant) O Clavis David et Sceptrum domus Israël, qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit; veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis. O Key of David, and Scepter of the house of Israel! who openest, and no man shutteth: who shuttest, and no […]
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Saturday, December 19, 2020
Saturday in Ember Week
Violet Fast and Partial Abstinence Prope est jam Dominus; venite, adoremus. The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore. The Lessons from the Prophet Isaias are interrupted today also; and a Homily on the Gospel of the Mass is read in their place. As this Gospel is repeated in the Mass of the fourth […]
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Third Antiphon
Third Antiphon(Listen to the Chant) O radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges o suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare. O Root of Jesse, who standest as the standard of the people; before whom Kings shall not open their lips; to whom the nations shall pray: […]
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Friday, December 18, 2020
Friday in Ember Week
Violet Fast and Full Abstinence 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 today; 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 […]
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Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This Feast, which is now kept, not only throughout the whole of Spain, but in almost all the Churches of the Catholic world, owes its origin to the Bishops of the tenth Council of Toledo, in 656. These Prelates having thought that there was an incongruity in the ancient practice of celebrating the feast of […]
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Second Antiphon
Second Antiphon(Listen to the Chant) O Adonai, et dux domus Israël, qui Moysi in igne flammæ rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti; veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extenso. O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appearedst to Moses in the fire of the flaming bush, and gavest to him […]
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Thursday, December 17, 2020
Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
Regem venturum Dominum, venite, adoremus. Come, let us adore the King, our Lord, who is to come. De Isaia Propheta. From the Prophet Isaias. Cap. xxxiii. 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 dispersae […]
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The Commencement of the Great Antiphons
The Church enters today on the seven days which precede the Vigil of Christmas, and which are known in the Liturgy under the name of the Greater Ferias. The ordinary of the Advent Office becomes more solemn; the Antiphons of the Psalms both for Lauds and the Hours of the day are proper, and allude […]
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Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Wednesday in Ember Week
Violet Fast and Partial Abstinence Prope est jam Dominus; venite, adoremus. The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore. Today 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 […]
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Saint Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, and Martyr
Red Semidouble When asked to tell the names of the Saints who were foremost in defending the dogma of the Incarnation, we think at once of the intrepid Eusebius of Vercelli, as one of the glorious number. The Catholic faith, which was so violently attacked in the fourth century by the Arian heresy, was maintained […]
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