Advent
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(Latin
ad-venio
, to come to).
According to present [1907] usage, Advent is a period beginning with the
Sunday
nearest to the feast of
St. Andrew the Apostle
(30 November) and embracing four Sundays. The first
Sunday
may be as early as 27 November, and then Advent has twenty-eight days, or as late as 3 December, giving the season only twenty-one days.
With Advent the ecclesiastical year begins in the
Western churches
. During this time the
faithful
are admonished
- to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the
anniversary
of the Lord's coming into the world as the incarnate
God
of
love
,
- thus to make their
souls
fitting abodes for the Redeemer coming in
Holy Communion
and through
grace
, and
- thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as judge, at
death
and at the
end of the world
.
Symbolism
To attain this object the
Church
has arranged the Liturgy for this season. In the official
prayer
, the
Breviary
, she calls upon her
ministers
, in the Invitatory for
Matins
, to adore "the Lord the King that is to come", "the Lord already near", "Him Whose glory will be seen on the morrow". As Lessons for the first
Nocturn
she prescribes chapters from the
prophet
Isaias, who speaks in scathing terms of the ingratitude of the
house of Israel
, the chosen children who had forsaken and forgotten their Father; who tells of the Man of Sorrows stricken for the
sins
of His people; who describes accurately the passion and death of the coming
Saviour
and His final glory; who announces the gathering of the
Gentiles
to the Holy Hill. In the second
Nocturn
the Lessons on three
Sundays
are taken from the eighth
homily
of
Pope St. Leo
(440-461) on
fasting
and
almsdeeds
as a preparation for the advent of the Lord, and on one Sunday (the second) from
St. Jerome's
commentary on
Isaiah 11:1
, which text he interprets of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
as "the rod out of the root of Jesse". In the
hymns
of the season we find praise for the coming of
Christ
, the Creator of the
universe
, as Redeemer, combined with
prayer
to the coming judge of the world to protect us from the enemy. Similar
ideas
are expressed in the
antiphons
for the Magnificat on the last seven days before the Vigil of the Nativity. In them, the
Church
calls on the Divine Wisdom to teach us the way of
prudence
; on the
Key of David
to free us from bondage; on the Rising Sun to illuminate us sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, etc. In the Masses the intention of the
Church
is shown in the choice of the Epistles and Gospels. In the Epistle she exhorts the faithful that, since the Redeemer is nearer, they should cast aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; should walk honestly, as in the day, and put on the
Lord Jesus Christ
; she shows that the nations are called to praise the name of the Lord; she asks them to rejoice in the nearness of the Lord, so that the peace of
God
, which surpasses all understanding, may keep their hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus
; she admonishes them not to pass judgment, for the Lord, when He comes, will manifest the secrets hidden in hearts. In the Gospels the
Church
speaks of the Lord coming in glory; of Him in, and through, Whom the prophecies are being fulfilled; of the Eternal walking in the midst of the
Jews
; of the voice in the
desert
, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord". The
Church
in her Liturgy takes us in spirit back to the time before the incarnation of the
Son of God
, as though it were really yet to take place.
Cardinal Wiseman
says:
We are not dryly exhorted to profit by that blessed event, but we are daily made to sigh with the Fathers of old, "Send down the dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One: let the earth be opened, and bud forth the Redeemer." The Collects on three of the four
Sundays
of that season begin with the words, "Lord, raise up thy power and come" as though we feared our iniquities would prevent His being born.
Duration and ritual
On every day of Advent the
Office
and
Mass
of the Sunday or Feria must be said, or at least a Commemoration must be made of them, no matter what grade of feast occurs. In the
Divine Office
the
Te Deum
, the joyful
hymn
of praise and thanksgiving, is omitted; in the Mass the
Gloria in excelsis
is not said. The
Alleluia
, however, is retained. During this time the solemnization of matrimony (
Nuptial Mass
and Benediction) cannot take place; which prohibition binds to the feast of Epiphany inclusively. The celebrant and sacred
ministers
use violet vestments. The
deacon
and
subdeacon
at Mass, in place of the
dalmatics
commonly used, wear folded
chasubles
. The
subdeacon
removes his during the reading of the Epistle, and the
deacon
exchanges his for another, or for a wider stole, worn over the left shoulder during the time between the singing of the Gospel and the Communion. An exception is made for the third
Sunday
(
Gaudete
Sunday), on which the vestments may be rose-coloured, or richer violet ones; the sacred
ministers
may on this Sunday wear
dalmatics
, which may also be used on the Vigil of the Nativity, even if it be the fourth
Sunday
of Advent.
Pope Innocent III
(1198-1216) states that black was the colour to be used during Advent, but violet had already come into use for this season at the end of the thirteenth century.
Binterim
says that there was also a law that pictures should be covered during Advent. Flowers and
relics
of Saints are not to be placed on the altars during the Office and Masses of this time, except on the third
Sunday
; and the same prohibition and exception exist in regard to the use of the
organ
. The popular
idea
that the four weeks of Advent symbolize the four thousand years of darkness in which the world was enveloped before the coming of
Christ
finds no confirmation in the Liturgy.
Historical origin
It cannot be determined with any degree of
certainty
when the celebration of Advent was first introduced into the
Church
. The preparation for the feast of the
Nativity of Our Lord
was not held before the feast itself existed, and of this we find no evidence before the end of the fourth century, when, according to Duchesne [Christian Worship (London, 1904), 260], it was celebrated throughout the whole Church, by some on 25 December, by others on 6 January. Of such a preparation we read in the Acts of a
synod
held at Saragossa in 380, whose fourth canon prescribes that from the seventeenth of December to the feast of the Epiphany no one should be permitted to absent himself from church. We have two
homilies
of
St. Maximus
,
Bishop
of
Turin
(415-466), entitled "In Adventu Domini", but he makes no reference to a special time. The title may be the addition of a copyist. There are some
homilies
extant, most likely of
St. Caesarius
,
Bishop
of Arles (502-542), in which we find mention of a preparation before the birthday of
Christ
; still, to judge from the context, no general law on the matter seems then to have been in existence. A
synod
held (581) at
Mâcon
, in
Gaul
, by its ninth canon orders that from the eleventh of November to the Nativity the Sacrifice be offered according to the
Lenten
rite on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the week. The Gelasian Sacramentary notes five
Sundays
for the season; these five were reduced to four by
Pope St. Gregory VII
(1073-85). The collection of
homilies
of
St. Gregory the Great
(590-604) begins with a sermon for the second
Sunday
of Advent. In 650 Advent was celebrated in
Spain
with five
Sundays
. Several
synods
had made
laws
about
fasting
to be observed during this time, some beginning with the eleventh of November, others the fifteenth, and others as early as the autumnal equinox. Other
synods
forbade the celebration of matrimony. In the
Greek Church
we find no documents for the observance of Advent earlier than the eighth century. St. Theodore the Studite (d. 826), who speaks of the feasts and
fasts
commonly celebrated by the Greeks, makes no mention of this season. In the eighth century we find it observed not as a
liturgical
celebration, but as a time of fast and abstinence, from 15 November to the Nativity, which, according to Goar, was later reduced to seven days. But a council of the
Ruthenians
(1720) ordered the fast according to the old rule from the fifteenth of November. This is the rule with at least some of the Greeks. Similarly, the Ambrosian and the Mozarabic Rites have no special liturgy for Advent, but only the fast.
About this page
APA citation.
Mershman, F.
(1907).
Advent.
In
The Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01165a.htm
MLA citation.
Mershman, Francis.
"Advent."
The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 1.
New York: Robert Appleton Company,
1907.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01165a.htm>.
Transcription.
This article was transcribed for New Advent by Carl H. Horst.
Ecclesiastical approbation.
Nihil Obstat.
March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.
Imprimatur.
+John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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