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with our petition that Jesus Christ may come into every
individual soul, and thus they remotely prepare mankind
for the coming at the last day.
Place in the liturgical year. The liturgical year
may be regarded as forming two cycles, one of which
revolves round the festival of Christmas, the other
round the festival of Easter. The Christmas cycle is
introduced by Advent which represents the period an
terior to the coming of the Messias and thus Advent
carries us back to the origin of the world. Further, in a
mystical sense, Advent guides our first steps in what
is called the Purgative Way, by inviting us all to prac
tise mortification and penance, and thus to prepare
the way of the Lord.
Lessons of Advent. During Advent the Church
would make the Christian realize that his life on earth
is a perpetual act of renunciation, that in order to receive
into his soul the promised Redeemer, he must do pen
ance, that is, according to the Prophet Isaias, he must
cease to do evil and must purify himself from his sins,
and that on these conditions he will have a share in the
blessing of the first coming of Jesus Christ.
We find this teaching in all those parts of the Office
and the Mass that are special to each of the four Sun
days ; in the lessons of the Ember Mass ; on the special
Feasts which the Church has instituted during this sea
son in honour of the mystery of the Incarnation, and
in the Great Antiphons sung during the seven days
which immediately precede the festival of Christmas.