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The Christmas Cycle
Saturday
The station for the Mass during the first week of Advent is the Church of St. Mary Major in
Rome. Entering into the holy shrine, the house of the Mother of God, we recall with her the
holy mystery of the Incarnation. “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived
of the Holy Ghost.” Salvation is brought to us by the Church through Mary.
“The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.” In Mary, the Mother of God, in whose house we
are now assembled, we shall find Christ, and with Him salvation. The Virgin believes; she speaks
her fiat with complete resignation to the message of the angel; and the Word was made flesh in
the womb of the Virgin. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among
women.” Mary is the Mother of God, the bridge by means of which Christ brings us salvation.
He who desires salvation and the forgiveness of his sins, he who seeks the truth and the grace
of eternal life, will find it in the Virgin Mary. “He that shall find me shall find life” (Prv 8:35).
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and the Holy that shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God” (Responsory at Matins).
In the liturgy, Mary is not merely an eminent personality of the past; she is also a type
and a symbol of the Church; she is a present reality and enjoys a mysterious life in the Church
today. In the person of Mary, the Church prepares for the feast of Christmas. Through her the
Church has conceived salvation. By means of her the Word was made flesh in the Church and
has taken up His abode among us.
Of the Church it may be said, as it was said of the Virgin Mother, “The Lord is with thee.”
The Church is the Mother of God during the season of Advent. He who wishes to find Christ
and the truth, he who desires to obtain grace and share the life of God, will find these things
in the Church.
Today we abide in the house of Mary and await in the quiet of Nazareth the approach of
the Son of God. The angel, in the person of the priest, comes and brings us the message:
“Behold, the Virgin, the Church, will conceive in this hour.” He bends low over the bread
and the chalice. “This is My body; this is My blood.” The Holy Spirit overshadows the bread
and the chalice. The Church believes and prays and acknowledges gratefully: “The Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us.” What a blessed advent! What a blessed appearance
of the Lord in the house of Mary, the holy Church! Soon He will enter our souls in Holy
Communion and take up His abode in our hearts as He once did in the bosom of Mary at
Nazareth. “The Lord is with thee.”
You and I are united, not so much by the fact of salvation, grace, and redemption, as by the
fact that we enjoy membership in the communion of the Church. So intimately are we united
by reason of the supernatural life and calling that we could not be more closely united in desire
and feeling if we were bound together by chains. So complete is our solidarity as a group in our
life, our virtues, and even in our sins, that we think of salvation principally as it applies to the
whole Christian community. We share Christ and His redemption in the measure in which we
are united to Mary and the Church. Only by praying, believing, and hoping with the Church
can we find an escape from the narrowness and isolation of ourselves as individuals. Only by
our membership in the Church and through our association with her may we hope to grow to
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