Dom Prosper Gueranger

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) It is now time to offer the Great Sacrifice, and to call down our Emmanuel from heaven: he alone can fully pay the debt of gratitude which mankind owes to the Eternal Father. He will intercede for us on the Altar, as he did in his Crib. We will approach him with love, and he will give himself to us. But such is the greatness of today’s Mystery, that the Church … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) ‘At length,’ says St. Peter Damian, in his sermon for this holy eve, ‘at length we have come from the stormy sea into the tranquil port; hitherto it was the promise, now it is the prize; hitherto labour, now rest; hitherto despair, now hope; hitherto the way, now our home. The heralds of the divine promise came to us; but they gave us nothing but rich promises. Hence our psalmist himself … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore. From the Prophet Isaiah – Chapter 66 Hear the word of the Lord, you that tremble at his word. Your brethren that hate you, and cast you out for my name’s sake, have said: Let the Lord be glorified, and we shall see in your joy: but they shall be confounded. A voice of the people from the city, a voice from … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore. From the Prophet Isaiah – Chapter 64 Oh that thou would rend the heavens, and would come down; the mountains would melt away at thy presence; they would melt as at the burning of fire; the waters would burn with fire; that thy name might be made known to thy enemies: that the nations might tremble at thy presence. When thou shall … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh: come, let us adore. From the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 51 Give ear to me, you that follow that which is just, and you that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you are dug out. Look unto Abraham your father and to Sara that bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh; come, let us Adore. From the Prophet Isaias. Chapter 42 Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my elect, my soul delights in him; I have given me spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad. The bruised reed he shall not break, and the smoking flax … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh: come, let us adore. From the Prophet Isaiah. – Chapter 42 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend; in whom I have taken thee from the ends of the earth, and from the remote parts thereof have called thee, and said to thee: Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and have not east thee … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) We have now entered into the week which immediately precedes the birth of the Messiah. That long desired coming might be tomorrow; and at furthest, that is, when Advent is as long as it can be, the beautiful feast is only seven days from us. So that the Church now counts the hours; she watches day and night, and since December 17th her Offices have assumed an unusual solemnity. At Lauds, … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh: come, let us adore. The lessons from the prophet Isaiah are interrupted today also; and a homily on the Gospel of the Mass is read in their place. As this Gospel is repeated tomorrow, in the Mass of the fourth Sunday of Advent, we will, for the present, omit it, and be satisfied with mentioning the reason of the same Gospel being assigned to the two … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh; let us adore. The Church does not read anything from the prophet Isaiah 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 Visitation: and to this she subjoins a fragment of Saint Ambrose’s homily upon that passage. The considerations and affections with which this important event of our Lady’s life … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore. From the Prophet Isaias – Chapter 33 Oh Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for thee: be thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of trouble. At the voice of the angel the people fled, and at the lifting up thyself the nations are scattered. And your spoils shall be gathered together as the … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh; . come, let us adore. To-day 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 Advent liturgy; it is one which has been fixed for each of the four seasons of the ecclesiastical year. We may consider it as one of … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore. From the Prophet Isaias.. Chapter 30 The Lord waits that he may have mercy on you, and therefore shall he be exalted sparing you: because the Lord is the God of judgement, blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people of Sion shall dwell in Jerusalem: weeping thou shall not weep: he will surely have pity on thee: at … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore. From the Prophet Isaias – Chapter 28Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lay a stone in  foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner-stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation. He that believes, let him not hasten. And I will set judgement in weight, and justice in measure; and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood, and waters shall … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) Today, again, the Church is full of joy, and the joy is greater than it was. It is true that her Lord has not come; but she feels that He is nearer than before, and therefore she thinks it just to lessen somewhat the austerity of this penitential season by the innocent cheerfulness of her sacred rites. And first, this Sunday has had the name of ‘Gaudete’ given to it, from … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) Come, let us adore the King our Lord, who is to come. From the. Prophet Isaias – Chapter 25Oh Lord, Thou art my God. I will exalt Thee, and give glory to Thy name: for Thou has done wonderful things, Thy designs of old faithful. Amen. For Thou has reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers to be no city, and to be … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) Come, let us adore the King our Lord, who is to come. From the Prophet Isaias – Chapter 24 Behold the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it: and shall afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, so with her … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) At length, on the distant horizon, rises, with a soft and radiant light, the aurora of the Sun which has been so long desired. The happy Mother of the Messiah was to be born before the Messiah Himself; and this is the day of the Conception of Mary. The earth already possesses a first pledge of the divine mercy; the Son of Man is near at hand. Two true Israelites, Joachim … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) Come, let us adore the King, our Lord, who is to come. From the Prophet Isaias – Chapter 16 Send forth, Oh Lord, the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion. And it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be … Read More

(You can download this article as a pdf HERE) Come, let us adore the King our Lord, who is to come. From the Prophet Isaias. Chapter 14 Her time is near at hand, and her days shall not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger shall be joined with them, and shall adhere to the house of Jacob. … Read More