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The Christmas Cycle
“The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him” (Gradual). We turn, now, from all that is
past, all that is evil, and look forward to the redemption. In the Offertory we are the Church,
Mary, the virgin and handmaid. As virgin we have been freed from everything that is not from
God and for God; we have offered ourselves up to Him as handmaids with deep humility;
therefore, we are prepared to receive Him and His gifts. Now He can fill our souls with His
grace. “Drop down dew, ye heavens.” In the Consecration of the Mass the heavens drop down
upon Mary and the whole Church. The heavens rain down the Savior upon the Church as
they once rained manna upon the chosen people. Now He is in our midst with the fullness of
grace to free us from our sins. He prays for us, offers Himself up for us, and will Himself be the
expiation for all the offenses of which we have been guilty in the eyes of the Father. We unite
ourselves to Him and offer up His body and blood and His soul to the Father as our offering
of praise, thanksgiving, petition, and expiation.
What our hands and hearts offer to the Father, again descends upon us. in the form of grace
and blessing. “Let the clouds rain down the Just One” into our hearts. In Holy Communion
the Church shares the blessed conception of the Virgin. “His name shall be called Emmanuel,”
God with us (Communion). “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him in truth,” in
honest acknowledgment of their own nothingness, in detachment from all things that are not
of God, and in the spirit of the virgin and handmaid.
Meditation (1)
Three heralds of Advent appear in the Mass today: Isaias the Prophet in the Introit (on the way
to the Sanctuary), John the Baptist in the Gospel (in the vestibule), and the Blessed Virgin in
the Offertory and the Communion chant (at the place of sacrifice in the holy of holies). All
three remind us that the Lord is nigh and that we must prepare the way for Him; they explain
the meaning of the Mass to us.
In the instructional part of the Mass, grace knocks at our soul. The call of grace reaches us
through Isaias and John the Baptist, through the texts and the songs, through the Epistle and
the Gospel. They remind us significantly, “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.” Grace
knocks at our hearts and with an Ave on its lips seeks entrance into our souls. It comes to us in
the plain garb of human language; chants, prayers, and stories. Like Mary we listen with attention
and wonder what this greeting of grace may mean, and what the lessons, the admonitions, and
the prayers may signify.
The Offertory is our fiat, the joyful assent of the soul in answer to the Ave of the angel; our
assent to the call of grace that reaches us in the Mass. In the offering of the bread and wine, the
Church and the Christian soul echoes Mary’s words: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” The
faithful offer up to God their souls and their bodies to be used at His good pleasure. Upon the
altar they lay their souls and their bodies, their strength, their talents, and all that they have, as a
complete holocaust to the will of God. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” We turn away from all
that is sinful, from all that can in any way displease Him, in order that our thoughts, our plans,
our works, and our hopes may prepare the way for Him; we level all the hills of self-esteem and
pride in order that we may live, no longer to ourselves, but to God. “Behold the handmaid of
the Lord.” We place ourselves in the hands of God with complete subjection: “Be it done to
me according to thy word.”
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