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White Double of the First Class with Privileged Octave of third Order 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 is not satisfied with only once offering up the Holy Sacrifice. The long-expected and precious Gift...

Violet Privilege of the First Class (Double from Lauds onwards) “AT LENGTH,” says St. Peter Damian in his Sermon for this holy Eve, “at length we have got from the stormy sea in to the tranquil port; hitherto it was the promise; now it is the prize; hitherto labor, 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 grew wearied, and slept, and with a seeming reproachful tone, thus sings his lamentation to God: But...

THE HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS WE APPLY the name of Christmas to the forty days, which begin with the Nativity of our Lord, December 25th, and end with the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, February 2nd. It is a period, which forms a distinct portion of the Liturgical Year, as distinct, by its own special spirit, from every other, as are Advent, Lent, Easter, or Pentecost. One same Mystery is celebrated and kept in view during the whole forty days. Neither the Feasts of the Saints, which so abound during this Season; nor the Time of Septuagesima, with its mournful...

THE HISTORY OF ADVENT THE NAME Advent (from the Latin Adventus, which signifies a coming) is applied, in the Latin Church, to that period of the year, during which the Church requires the faithful to prepare for the celebration of the feast of Christmas, the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. The mystery of that great day had every right to the honor of being prepared for by prayer and works of penance; and, in fact, it is impossible to state, with any certainty, when this season of preparation (which had long been observed before receiving its present...

Maronite image of Saint Thecla, taken from Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church (The following is excerpted from the 23 September entry in Volume XIV of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation of Dom Prosper Guéranger's 'The Liturgical Year' by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "While honouring the first successor of St. Peter [St. Linus], Rome commemorates the protomartyr of the female sex. Together with holy Church, then, let us unite in the concert of praise unanimously lavished upon [Saint] Thecla by the fathers of east and west. When the martyr pontiff Methodius [Saint Methodius of Olympus]...

St. Cletus I & St. Marcellinus (The following is taken from Dom Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for April 26, in Volume VIII of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "Two bright stars appear this day on the ecclesiastical cycle, proclaiming the glory of our Jesus, the Conqueror of death. Again they are two pontiffs, and martyr pontiffs [a reference to the feast day of Sts. Soter and Caius on April 22]. Cletus leads us to the very commencement of the Church, for he was a disciple of Peter, and...

From Diocese of Mans: Le 21 décembre 2005, Mgr Faivre a procédé à l'introduction officielle de la Cause de béatification de Dom Prosper Guéranger. En présence du Très Révérend Père Dom Philippe Dupont, Abbé de Solesmes, il a répondu à la supplique présentée par le postulateur de la Cause, Dom Jacques de Préville, en ordonnant l'ouverture de l'enquête sur la vie, les vertus et la renommée de sainteté du Serviteur de Dieu. A cet effet, il a constitué un tribunal en nommant le chanoine Olivier Le Jariel juge instructeur, le chanoine Jean Lusseau promoteur de justice, l'abbé Camille Moulin notaire,...