“God Triumphed in the Person of Christ”
Reflections on the Liturgical Year
Part I: The Advent Mystery
Kurt Belsole, O.S.B.
Revised: November 25, 2016

“God triumphed in the person of Christ” (Col. 2:15). The sacred liturgy cannot be understood except as “the mystery of Christ in you, your hope of glory” (Col. 1:27) and as the “mystery now revealed to his holy ones” (Col. 1:26). This mystery is at one and the same time both cosmic and intensely personal. It involves not only the union of the divine and human natures in Christ, but also divine and human destiny. The sacred liturgy celebrates this divine and human interchange both in the person of Christ and in us as we “become partakers in the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). Liturgy is not about itself, but about living the life of Christ in His Mysteries–to borrow a title from Blessed Columba Marmion.

The Season of Advent

Background to the Celebration

Advent is fundamentally the season of desire, first of all of God’s desire for us and then of our desire for God. “We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us” (1 Jn. 4:16), and without this fundamental conviction we can neither understand nor celebrate the Advent mysteries in all their fullness.

Divine desire itself animates the whole of the Advent mystery. God desires us so much that he humbles himself to become one of us. Through the mystery of the incarnation, the Son of God comes into our world not only to save us but also to bring us into union with him. Life is not only communicated, but life is shared, so much so that he who is the Savior actually becomes the Spouse of his Bride the Church.

The mystery of Advent is tied as well to the virtue of Christian hope—when we recognize the plan of God and think of “what could be” and long for it with all our heart. That hope, however, relies on the grace of God and the willingness of the human heart to change, to be converted, to be transformed and indeed to be transfigured. The Advent season is characterized by hope, but a hope that abandons itself to divine sovereignty in watching, waiting, and conversion. It draws us into a hopeful expectation that is spurred on by readings from Isaiah and Ezekiel, the preaching of John the Baptist, and the response of the Virgin Mary.

Some Characteristics of the Advent Liturgy

Advent has a twofold character both as a time to prepare for Christmas when the first coming of Christ is remembered and celebrated as well as a time when our minds and hearts are directed to await and to prepare for the second coming of Christ (see General Norms for the Liturgical Year, 39).

The first part of Advent focuses more on the second coming of Christ while, as the season progresses, the focus turns more and more to preparation for Christmas. The days from December 17th to December 24 serve as a more intense time of preparation for the celebration of the Lord’s Nativity. Mass on those days has special readings, prayers, and antiphons as well as a proper preface.

In the Liturgy of the Hours, the hymn assigned after the Second Vatican Council to Evening Prayer every day during the season of Advent until December 17th is the great traditional 7th century vespers hymn Conditor alme siderum which is also known in its English translation by John Mason Neale as Creator of the Stars of Night.

The marvelous “O Antiphons” of the Magnificat begin with Evening Prayer on December 17th and continue until Evening Prayer on December 23rd inclusive. Each of these antiphons begins with an invocation of the expected Messiah and, in the Office, is sung in a similar characteristic melody. One of the reforms of Vatican Council II was to place the “O Antiphons” of the Magnificat within Mass as the Alleluia verse before the gospel.

Some Historical Developments in the Liturgy of Advent

Certain particulars of the Advent liturgy have their origin in Gaul at the turn of the seventh century, e.g., the eschatological dimension of Advent was sharply accented, perhaps because of the influence of Irish missionaries who laid stress on the coming of the Lord as Judge at the end of time and on the need to do penance before the Lord’s return. Their preaching turned Advent into a penitential season. In liturgies of Gaul, the Gloria and Alleluia were dropped from the Mass; the Te Deum was dropped from the Office and violet vestments were used.

By the twelfth century, something of this penitential character was transmitted from Gaul to the Roman liturgy: the Gloria was omitted and violet vestments were used, but the Alleluia was retained. Today in the Liturgy of the Hours, the Te Deum is retained as well.

Recommended Bibliography on the Liturgical Year

Adam, Adolph. The Liturgical Year. Translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. New York: Pueblo, 1981. This is a fine one-volume work which gives a scholarly summary presentation of the Church’s liturgical year.

Nocent, Adrian. The Liturgical Year. Four volumes. Translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1977. These four volumes are essential components of the library of anyone seriously interested in understanding the liturgical year as revised after the Second Vatican Council. Fr. Nocent, a Belgian Benedictine, was a professor at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute at Sant’Anselmo for decades, and these four volumes which are still in print will serve well anyone who wishes to foster full, active, and conscious participation in the liturgy of the Church. In these volumes, Fr. Nocent relies heavily on patristic homilies as he provides biblico-liturgical reflections on the seasons of the liturgical year and then presents the reader with scholarly insight on the structures and themes of the readings for Mass. The present edition by Liturgical Press is in three volumes.

Parsch, Pius. The Church’s Year of Grace. Five volumes. Translated by William Heidt. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1953-1959. Fr. Parsch, an Augustinian canon of Stift Klosterneuburg outside of Vienna and an ardent apostle of the liturgical movement before Vatican II, first published this multivolume work in German in the 1930’s. Its success is attested to by the fact that it was subsequently translated into French, Italian, English, and Spanish. Fr. Parsch’s work provides a comprehensive consideration of the liturgical year as it was arranged at that time as well as helpful information on Catholic customs related to the Church’s annual celebrations. These volumes are useful not only for those interested in the Extraordinary Form but also for anyone concerned with the theological and cultural context of Catholic feasts.

Source: Rev. Kurt Belsole, OSB, Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA
www.liftupyourhearts.church