Anticipating Advent in 2014

The principal focus of Advent is on Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s First Coming in time when His Blessed Mother gave Birth to Him painlessly in the cradle in the stable in the cave in Bethlehem. Nevertheless, Holy Mother Church has long taught us that we are to meditate also during the first days of Advent on the Second Coming of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ at the end of time, as well as His "many comings" in our lives, especially by means of Sanctifying Grace and by means of His abiding Presence in the Church Militant here on earth. Additionally, we are called to reflect on the fact that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ might come for any one of us at any time at the end of our lives, a moment known to Him alone, which requires us to be ready at all times to face the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords at the moment of the Particular Judgment. Using Advent as a means to recall the First Coming of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as well as to prepare ourselves for His "intermediate comings" in the life of the Church and at the end of our own lives makes quite a bit of theological sense. Permit me a chance to explain.

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was born for us in Bethlehem so as to make it possible for us sinful men to participate in His Easter victory over sin and death. Bethlehem was meant to lead directly to Calvary, and from there to the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's birth for us in time after He spent nine months in the tabernacle of His Blessed Mother's virginal and immaculate womb is supposed to have eternal meaning for each one of our lives.

Everything in our lives is meant to revolve around Him and the standard of His Holy Cross. His birth in Bethlehem was meant to make possible our spiritual regeneration in the baptismal font, at which moment we became incorporated into His Mystical Body as members of His true Church, our mater and our magister, our mother and teacher. Thus, every moment of our lives, bar none, is meant to be defined by the events of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Incarnation, Nativity, Hidden Years, Public Ministry, Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension to the Father's right hand in glory. We are called, therefore, to realize that we are to grow in our knowledge of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as He has revealed Himself through His true Church so that our love for Him will grow to such a fever pitch that we will seek to serve Him in all aspects of our lives.

This is something that a truly serious Catholic knows without an annual reminder in a publication of Catholic commentary. Granted. However, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ does indeed come like a thief in the night. He comes when we least expect it. Advent thus provides us all a chance to recall that the commemoration of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Nativity which occurs on Christmas Day and during the Christmas Season liturgically is meant to help us to think supernaturally at all times in the terms given us by the Babe who was born for us to make it possible for us to born unto eternal life at the moment we breathe our last.

This is an important point to remember. Let me explain.

The liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas are not about maudlin sentimentality. They are given us by Holy Mother Church to help us focus more carefully on our need for the truths of the true Faith in every aspect of our lives. We cannot view any of the events of the day as though the Incarnation and the Nativity of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity can be ignored as irrelevant in the course of our daily lives. There is no secular, religiously indifferentist way to view problems that have their remote origin in Original Sin and their proximate origin in the aftermath of the Protestant Revolt and the rise of Freemasonry. It is only a frank and unapologetic defense of the truths of the Catholic Faith, expressed full-throated and with never a hesitation about proclaiming the Holy Name of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that can help others to see the harm of a world that goes about its business as though it is possible to speak about current events without once thinking of the Deposit of Faith that has been entrusted whole and entire solely to the Catholic Church. Thus, Advent is meant to be used by us to eschew human respect in all of its forms and to speak and to write and to act as Catholics no matter what it will cost us in terms of “success” in this passing world.

Making a good Advent requires as much planning and dedication as it takes to make a good Lent. Although Advent does not involve the degree of austere penances called for in Lent, it is a penitential season, which is why purple is used as the color of the liturgical vestments. Our voluntary renunciation of self during Advent is a way of reminding us that we are to be filled more completely with Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and Savior Jesus Christ with each passing day.

Plans are always made to welcome a new child into a family. We must make plans during Advent to give a fit welcome to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, especially by making room for in the inns of our hearts, by withdrawing from the spirit of the world and spending more time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and to the Mother of God. Keeping a good Advent involves, of course, keeping time with Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in His Real Presence, praying Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary daily, and getting to Confession once a week. It is also important to keep the practice of the Christmas Novena, which begins tomorrow, Sunday, November 30, 2014, the First Sunday of Advent (see the appendix below).

Preparing to commemorate the Nativity of Our Divine Redeemer also involves reminding ourselves that the events of Bethlehem are meant to change the entirety of our lives forever. We are Christ's. Our eyes are the eyes of Christ. Our ears are the ears of Christ. Our mind is the mind of Christ. We are called to love with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to which we are called to be totally consecrated. We are called during Advent to give concrete expression to all of this by withdrawing from the commercialism of what has become the "holiday season." It is especially important for Catholics to keep Advent simple and penitential in this regard.

There is no need for us to "prove" our love for our children and relatives and friends by spending all kinds of money on gifts for them. Why do we want to support the truly horrific evils of corporate America, most of whose stores prohibit any mention of the word Christmas? This is but a secular continuation, common in both capitalist and socialist countries, of the old Calvinist practice, exhibited by the Puritans in North America in the Seventeenth Century, of outlawing the public celebration of Christmas.

After all, Christmas means "Christ Mass." The wretched lot of sorry people who followed John Calvin's multiple heresies could accord no recognition at all to that which they hated so fiercely, Christ's Mass, the Holy Sacrifice in which Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is made Incarnate anew in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine. Christmas had to be banished from view, "Thanksgiving" made into a secular feast. The same is true today, is it not? Why subsidize these haters of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, no less go greatly into debt to participate in their evil ways?

Let me reiterate this point so as to make myself very clear: The corporate robber barons of today, concerned only about the bottom line, cater to adherents of Talmudic Judaism and of a Communist holiday, Kwanza, and the various demonic practices of Eastern "mysticism." Why support them? Why? Why shop in their stores? Why reward them with our business? Why complicate a season in which our principal focus must be on preparing our souls for a worthy commemoration of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Nativity in Bethlehem by spending time and money on the passing things of this world?

It is far, far better to send Mass cards to our friends, making it clear that we are having the Immemorial Mass of Tradition said for them and their families. There is no better Christmas gift to give to another than a Mass card or a spiritual bouquet of Masses. Our relatives may not appreciate the gift of Masses we choose to give them; however, their mystification at what we give them provides us with more merit in Heaven while at the same time they benefit from the graces which flow forth from the Masses we have arranged to have said for them.

We can combat the secularism and paganism that are the products of the Judeo-Masonic world of Modernity when we have to venture out into the world to buy our groceries and other needed supplies by correcting merchants who wish us a "happy holiday" by wishing them a "Blessed Advent," reminding them that we must be prepared at all times for the Coming of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and Saviour Jesus Christ into our lives by means of Sanctifying Grace and at the moment of our Particular Judgments. We must go out of our ways to proclaim the Holy Name in public places.

Want to keep a simple and relatively commercial-free Advent and still get gifts for family and friends?

Shop at Catholic book and gift stores run by traditional Catholics and/or located in or near completely traditional Catholic chapels that make no concessions to conciliarism or to the nonexistent legitimacy of the false shepherds of its counterfeit church.

Make your own gifts for your family and friends. Someone is going to find his or her niche by designing and manufacturing bedding and clothing with the images of the saints on them. Someone is going to find his or her niche by creating good Catholic games for children and adults to play together. We can recapture the spirit of the Middle Ages by making simple gifts and making them well for the honor and glory of God, giving all of our efforts to Him through Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Other than liturgical feast days, such as the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Monday, December 8, 2014, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patronness and Empress of the Americas, on Friday, December 12, 2012, Advent is not a time of celebration. It is not the time for partying whatsoever. We should politely decline all invitations to attend parties during Advent. Too bad if your boss does not understand. Better to keep the penance of the season than to please man and the mammon he has to offer us.

The principal of a fully traditional Catholic school explained some basic Catholic teachings about Advent in a letter sent home parents to explain why the school would not be participating in a tree lighting ceremony in a nearby park:

This letter is to inform you that the students will not be participating in the annual tree-lighting ceremony.

The ceremony, scheduled for December 1st, is to be secular in tone, featuring such songs as "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Frosty the Snowman," so as to be politically correct by modern standards. We, as faithful Catholics, do not condone the premature celebration of the feast of Christmas itself, nor do we approve of the purely secular "holiday" celebrations which the world in general promotes as a "Christ-less" alternative to Christmas. Therefore, we cannot participate in the planned festivities on Stepney Green.

The mind of Our Holy Mother the Church must be our rule of action. The Church would have us observe Advent. Although, to be sure, Advent is not another Lent, as regards fasting and other penitential practices, nevertheless it is a reverent hush, so to speak, during which we recollect ourselves and joyfully anticipate the glorious feast of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Nativity. When Christmas arrives, we shall celebrate it all the better for having piously observed Advent.

We must not allow ourselves to get swept up by the spirit of these worldly times. The spirit of the Catholic Church is not one of yielding to human respect and emotionalism, or of compromising with the world. "Peace on Earth; good will to men" is not synonymous with "Peace on Earth to men of good will."

 

Just sound Catholic teaching. We can make no exceptions to the spirit of the season of Advent. And we need not be overly concerned about the world around us. We do not need to rush out to malls. We do not need to do what others are doing. And isn't it about time that we withdrew from the popular culture once and for all? Why does it come as a surprise to some Catholics that Hollywood is getting bolder and bolder in producing overtly anti-Catholic motion pictures?

There is a solution to this: don't go to movie theatres. Would Our Blessed Lord and Saviour plop down the price of admission to enter into places where His Holy Name and His Holy Faith and His Most Blessed Mother are blasphemed on a regular basis and and where the very thing, sin, that caused Him to suffer during His Passion and Death and wounded His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart is heralded so as to incite more and more people to sin and/or to persist in their lives of unrepentant sin? If He would not do so, then why do you? Why? There is no good reason to enter a movie theatre or to turn a television set. Throw out your television. You will never miss it. Saints got to Heaven for centuries without motion pictures and watching television. So can you. Indeed, how much time is wasted on the popular culture that could be devoted to personal sanctity, such as praying more Rosaries each day? (And this is from a reformed television addict of the 1950s and 1960s and early 1970s and a reformed news addict from the 1950s through the 1990s).

Moreover, Advent is not the time for the playing of Christmas music. Christmas begins on December 25 (anticipated with First Vespers on December 24, obviously) and runs through the Epiphany (which has its own Octave in the calendar of Tradition) and concludes with the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 2 (although our Christmas joy will be impinged slightly as Septuagesima Sunday falls on Sunday, February 1, 2015). That is the time for the playing of Christmas music, not before.

Advent is a time of withdrawal from worldly concerns, something that is particularly important for parents with young children to teach them, shielding them as much as possible from all of the commercial and pagan efforts to entirely obliterate the true meaning of the period before Christmas from public view and the consciousness of men and women. A child who learns to make a spiritual Advent early in life will have a healthy immunization from the sort of materialistic expectations which most children come to have. Children must associate Christmas with the birth of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And this means that there must be no mention of the paganization of Saint Nicholas, the great foe of Arius and Arianism whose feast we are privileged to celebrate seven days from now, Saturday, December 6, 2014, into the image of "Santa Claus." Our children must be taught to anticipate the Coming of the Nativity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, not the coming of a fictional gift-giver.

The first day of the Christmas Octave, December 25, should be celebrated with joy, mindful, of course, that the most important gift God the Father could give us, His Son, was bestowed upon us on Christmas Day. We must do nothing which in any way detracts from our commemoration of this tremendous gift, which made possible our passageway to eternity. And one of the best ways to help us keep our focus during Advent is by reading Dom Prosper Gueranger's The Liturgical Year each day during Advent and the Christmas season (which is a good way to start reading it for the entire year).

Advent belongs to Our Lady. It is her time of waiting to give birth to her only Son, conceived by the power of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, which we commemorate during Advent. We must keep very close to her in the days leading up to Christmas. Although we are called to love Our Lady and to honor her every day of our lives, offering up to her Immaculate Heart all that we suffer in this life as her consecrated slaves, Advent reminds us that Our Lady was chosen from all eternity to be the singular vessel of devotion through which the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity would assume a perfect human nature with which to redeem us on the wood of the Holy Cross.

As noted before special periods of devotion to Our Lady are to be fostered, especially on December 8, which is the Feast of her Immaculate Conception, December 12, which is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Americas and of the Unborn, and in the eight days immediately before Christmas (December 17-24), the days of the "O Antiphons" in the Divine Office.

Indeed, Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego in Advent, leaving him an image of her on his tilma as she appeared carrying the Unborn Baby Jesus. We need to pray to her so that she will her impress the image of the purity and love of her Divine Son on our immortal souls so as to celebrate Advent in such a way as to realize that we must be prepared for Christ's coming into our lives at all times, especially during Holy Mass and at the end of our lives. And it is by cleaving to the Immemorial Mass of Tradition, which begins with a priest addressing God at the foot of the altar and ends with the Gospel of the Incarnation, as it is offered by true bishops and true bishops in the Catholic catacombs where no concessions are made to conciliarism or to its false shepherds that we can come to see the absolute necessity of making no compromise of any kind at any time for any reason with a world that is just as hostile to and unprepared for the Coming of Christ now as it was two millennia ago.

With prayers for a blessed Advent, I remain, Sincerely yours in Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen, Thomas A. Droleskey.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, pray for us!

Saint Joseph, Patron of Departing Souls, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Andrew the Apostle, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

The Christmas Novena on the Feast of Saint Andrew (said fifteen times daily until Christmas Day)

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold.  In that hour vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.  

The Novena in Honor of the Immaculate Conception (courtesy of The Apostolate of Our Lady of Good Success), to be prayed from November 30 to December 7

O IMMACULATE Virgin! Mary, conceived without sin!
Remember, thou wert miraculously preserved from
even the shadow of sin, because thou wert destined
to become not only the Mother of God, but also
the mother, the refuge, and the advocate of man;
penetrated, therefore, with the most lively confidence
in thy never-failing intercession, we most humbly implore
thee to look with favor upon the intentions of this novena,
and to obtain for us the graces and favors we request. Thou knowest, O Mary, how often our hearts are the
sanctuaries of God, Who abhors iniquity. Obtain for us,
then, that Angelic purity which was thy favorite virtue,
that purity  of heart which will attach us to God alone, and
that purity of intention which will consecrate every thought,
word, and action to His greater glory. Obtain also for us a
constant spirit of prayer and self-denial, that we may recover
by penance that innocence which we have lost by sin,
and at length attain safely to that blessed abode of the
Saints, where nothing defiled can enter. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Recite the Litany of the Blessed Virgin:

LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us.
Christ,
graciously hear us. God, the Father of Heaven,
have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the World,
have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost,
have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God,
have mercy on us. Holy Mary,
pray for us.
Holy Mother of God,
pray for us.
Holy Virgin of Virgins,
pray for us.
Mother of Christ,
pray for us.
Mother of Divine Grace,
pray for us.
Mother most Pure,
pray for us.
Mother most Chaste,
pray for us.
Mother Inviolate,
pray for us.
Mother Undefiled,
pray for us.
Mother most Amiable,
pray for us.
Mother most Admirable,
pray for us.
Mother of good Counsel,
pray for us.
Mother of our Creator,
pray for us.
Mother of our Savior,
pray for us.
Virgin most Prudent,
pray for us.
Virgin most Venerable,
pray for us.
Virgin most Renowned,
pray for us.
Virgin most Powerful,
pray for us.
Virgin most Merciful,
pray for us.
Virgin most Faithful,
pray for us.
Mirror of Justice,
pray for us.
Seat of Wisdom,
pray for us.
Cause of our Joy,
pray for us.
Spiritual Vessel,
pray for us.
Vessel of Honor,
pray for us.
Singular Vessel of Devotion,
pray for us.
Mystical Rose,
pray for us.
Tower of David,
pray for us.
Tower of Ivory,
pray for us.
House of Gold,
pray for us.
Ark of the Covenant,
pray for us.
Gate of Heaven,
pray for us.
Morning Star,
pray for us.
Health of the Sick,
pray for us.
Refuge of Sinners,
pray for us.
Comforter of the Afflicted,
pray for us.
Help of Christians,
pray for us.
Queen of Angels,
pray for us.
Queen of Patriarchs,
pray for us.
Queen of Prophets,
pray for us.
Queen of Apostles,
pray for us.
Queen of Martyrs,
pray for us.
Queen of Confessors,
pray for us.
Queen of Virgins,
pray for us.
Queen of all Saints,
pray for us.
Queen conceived without Original Sin,
pray for us.
Queen assumed into Heaven,
pray for us.
Queen of the most Holy Rosary,
pray for us.
Queen of Peace,
pray for us. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
spare us, O Lord!.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
graciously hear us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us. .

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray.

Grant, we beg Thee, O Lord God, that we Thy servants, may enjoy lasting health of mind and body, and by the glorious intercession of the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, be delivered from present sorrow and enter into the joy of eternal happiness. Through Christ Lord. R. Amen.

During Advent Let us pray.

O God, Thou hast willed that, at the message of an Angel, Thy Word should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary; grant to Thy suppliant people, that we, who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be helped by her intercession with Thee. Through the same Christ Our Lord. R. Amen.