First Day of December

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

The Church of Rome does not keep this day as a feast of any Saint. She simply recites the Office of the Feria unless it happen that the first Sunday of Advent fall on this first day of the month, in which case, the Office of that Sunday is celebrated, as given above in the Proper of Time.

But should this first day of December be a simple feria of Advent, we will do well to begin at once our considerations upon the preparations which were made for the merciful Coming of the Savior of the world.

Four thousand years of expectation preceded that Coming, and they are expressed by the four weeks of Advent, which we must spend before we come to the glorious festivity of our Lord’s Nativity. Let us reflect upon the holy impatience of the Saints of the Old Testament, and how they handed down, from age to age, the grand hope which was to be but hope to them since they were not to see it realized. Let us follow, in thought, the long succession of the witnesses of the promise: Adam, and the first Patriarchs, who lived before the deluge. Then, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs of the Hebrew people. Then Moses, Samuel, David and Solomon. Then, the Prophets and the Maccabees and, at last, John the Baptist and his disciples. These are the holy ancestors of whom the book of Ecclesiasticus speaks, where it says: “Let us praise men of renown, and our fathers in their generation” (Ecclesiasticus 44:1), and of whom the Apostle thus speaks to the Hebrews: “All these being approved by the testimony of faith, received not the promise. God providing some better thing for us, that they should not be perfected without us:” their faith was tried and approved, and yet they received not the object of the promises made to them. It was for us that God had reserved the stupendous gift, and therefore did not permit them to attain the object of their desires (Hebrews 11:39-40).

Let us honor them for their faith. Let us honor them as our veritable fathers, since it was in reward of their faith that our Lord remembered and fulfilled His merciful promise. Let us honor them, too, as the ancestors of the Messiah in the flesh. We may imagine each of them saying, as he lay on his dying bed, this solemn prayer to Him who alone could conquer death: “I will look for your salvation, O Lord!” It was the exclamation of Jacob, at his last hour, when he was pronouncing his prophetic blessings on his children: “and then,” says the Scripture, “he drew up his feet upon his bed, and died, and he was gathered to his people” (Genesis 49:32).

Thus did all these holy men, in quitting this life, go to await, far from the abode of eternal light, Him who was to come in due time and re-open the gate of Heaven. Let us contemplate them in this place of expectation, and give our grateful thanks to God who has brought us to His admirable Light without requiring us to pass through a Limbo of darkness. It is our duty to pray ardently for the Coming of the Deliverer who will break down by His Cross the gates of the prison, and will fill it with the brightness of His glory. During this holy season the Church is continually borrowing the fervent expressions of these Fathers of the Christian people, making them her own prayer for the Messiah to come. Let us turn to those great Saints and beg of them to pray that our work of preparation for Jesus’ coming to our hearts may be blessed by God.

We will make use, for this end, of the beautiful hymn wherein the Greek Church celebrates the memory of all the Saints of the Old Testament, on the Sunday immediately preceding the Feast of Christmas.

HYMN FOR THE FEAST OF THE HOLY FATHERS.
(Taken from the Menæa of the Greeks)

Celebrating, O ye faithful, on this day, the memory of the ancient Fathers, let us sing a new hymn to our Redeemer Christ, who magnified them in all nations, and worked incredible things in them by faith, for he is “the strong and mighty Lord. By them did he manifest to us the scepter of his power, the unparalleled Virgin-Mother of God, the chaste Mary, from whom came the Flower that buds forth life and eternal salvation to all.

It was thou, O Lord, that didst deliver the holy Children from the furnace, and Daniel from the mouth of the lions; that didst bless Abraham, and Isaac thy servant, and Jacob his son; that didst vouchsafe to be born among us from their seed, so to save our first parents who had fallen, and to be crucified and buried; that didst break the bonds of death, and gavest resurrection to all them who had died from the beginning, and who adored, O Christ, thy eternal kingdom.

And first let us venerate Adam, who was honored by the Creator’s hand, and was the first father of us all: who now dwells in the heavenly tabernacles, and rests amidst the holy elect.

The God and the Lord of all things received Abel, who offered his gifts with a generous heart; and took him into the heavenly light as a divine Martyr, when he was slain by the murderer’s hand.

Seth is celebrated throughout the world for his ardor towards the Creator: who saved him for his irreproachable life and this holy disposition of mind; and now, in the region of the living, he sings: Holy art thou, O Lord!

Enos, prophetically called the admirable, for his words and voice and heart, hoped in spirit in the Lord of all, and after a life spent on earth in exceeding goodness, he departed full of glory.

Let us praise, in our sacred canticles and prayers, the blessed Henoch; who, when he had pleased God, was translated to glory, and, as became so faithful a servant of God, without being overcome by death, as it is written of him.

Let us give praise to God by celebrating, with our hymns, Noah, who was just: in all things, God honored him with his divine commands, and he was well pleasing to Christ, to whom let us sing with faith: Glory be to thy power, Lord!

God seeing thy noble heart, and the sincerity of thy mind, and how in all things thou wast perfect, O Noah, he makes thee the Father of the second world, and bids thee save from the deluge a remnant of every species of animal.

Let us in our holy hymns praise Noah, who kept the law of God without reproof, and was found just in his generation, and who, by an admirable arrangement, saved, in the wooden ark, all the brute creation.

Thy memory, O blessed Noah, fills us with the wine of compunction, which gladdens our souls and hearts, whilst we devoutly extol thy holy life and thy divine manner of acting.

Sem is worthy of our praise, who brought forth plentiful fruit from his father’s blessing, and by his meekness found favor with God, and was numbered in the choir of the Fathers, and now rests in perfect joy in the land of the living.

Abraham merited, as the friend of God, to see the day of his Creator, and was filled with the joy promised to the Fathers: him, therefore, let us honor with sincere devotion, and let us all proclaim him the blessed Abraham, God’s faithful servant.

Thou didst see, as far as it is permitted man to see, the Trinity, and thou didst make it thy guest: wherefore thou receivedst the reward of thy hospitality, and wast made the Father, in the faith, of countless nations.

Most blessed Isaac, the divine wisdom made thee the type of Jesus in his Passion, when thy fathers sublime faith led thee to the sacrifice: therefore art thou blest, and loved of God as a most faithful friend, and seated on a throne with all the just.

Of all the servants of God Jacob was the most faithful: therefore was it that he wrestled with the Angel, seeing God in spirit, and his name was changed; and as he slept, he beheld the divine ladder, on which God was leaning; it was God, assuming to himself, in his mercy, human flesh.

Joseph, when he lovingly obeyed his father, was let down into a well and sold, and was the prototype of Him that was sacrificed, and thrown down into a pit. He gave corn to Egypt and saved it; he was wise and just, and a most true king over his passions.

Job lawfully endured the combat of ceaseless temptations, and deserves to be praised; he was God’s most true servant, he was meek, and a man without guile, upright, perfect, without reproof, ever saying: Blessed art thou, O God!

Let us faithfully honor Moses, and Aaron, and Hor: let us commemorate Josue, and the most holy Levi, and Gedeon, and Samson; and let us sing: Blessed art thou, O God of our Fathers! Let us celebrate the memory of that group of Fathers so loved of God, Baruch and Nathan and Eleazar; Josias, David, Jephte, and Samuel who had the vision of what had passed, and cried out: Let every creature bless the Lord!

Let our melodies praise God’s Prophets, celebrating Osee, Micheas, Sophonias, Habacuc, Zacharias, Jonas, Aggeus, Amos, Abdias, Malachias, Nahum, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, Daniel, Elias, and Eliseus.

By thy power, O Lord, virtuous exploits were achieved by those magnanimous women, our sisters, Anne, Judith, Debbora, Olda, Jahel, Esther, Sara, Mary, sister of Moses, Rachel, Rebecca and Ruth.

Come all ye people, let us, with faith, give praise to the Fathers who were before the Law; let us celebrate the festive memory of Abraham and them that are with him; let us give due honor to the tribe of Juda; let us celebrate the Children who quenched the fiery furnace in Babylon, the blessed Three, the type of the Trinity, and with them Daniel; let us hold fast to the oracles of the Prophets, and with Isaias sing with a loud voice: Lo! a Virgin shall conceive in her womb and shall bring forth a Son, Emmanuel, that is, God with us.

A RESPONSORY OF ADVENT
(The Roman Breviary, First Sunday of Advent, at Matins)

℟. Looking afar off, lo! I see the power of God coming and a cloud that covereth the whole earth: * Go ye out to meet him and say: * Tell us, if thou be he, *Who art to rule over the people of Israel.

℣. All ye that are earthborn and children of men, both rich and poor together, * Go ye out to meet him, and say:

℣. Give ear, thou that rulest Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep, * Tell us if thou be he?

℣. Lift up your gates, O ye princes; and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in. * Who art to rule over the people of Israel.