Today, as well as being the Fourth Sunday of Advent, is the
ancient Expectatio Partus of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The machinations of Annibale Bugnini were well on their way
in the middle 1950’s with the planned reforms given to us by Pope John XXIII in
the Missal of 1962 revisions. There was a removal of certain Octaves, a simplification
of Feasts and a virtual elimination of Commemorations. These are additional
Collects, Secrets and Postcommunions in the Mass. They can be when a particular
Mass for a Saint was a First Class or on certain other days such as Ferials in
Advent, and so on. On Sundays, there were, prior to 1962, three of these, the
one Proper to the Day, generally one of the Blessed Mother and a third for the Pope
or the priest’s choice. It could be confusing for the faithful as these were
not printed in hand missals, and translations were never provided. It was an
easy target for the radical reformers and because we are frozen at 1962 as per
Summorum Pontificum, you might only hear them at Mass in an independent chapel that
might refuse the Missal of 1962. The Society of St. Pius X, Fraternity of St. Peter would follow 1962.
Commemoration of the EXPECTATION OF OUR LADY
Collect— O God, Who didst will that at the message of an
angel Thy word should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary: grant
that we, Thy suppliants, who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be
helped by her intercession with Thee. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son,
Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world
without end.
Secret—Strengthen in our minds, O Lord, we beseech Thee, the
mysteries of the true faith, that, confessing Him Who was conceived of the
Virgin to be true God and true man, we may deserve, through the power of His
saving resurrection, to attain everlasting joy. Through the same Lord Jesus
Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy
Ghost, God, Forever and ever.
Postcommunion—Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace
into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made
known by the message of an angel, may, by His passion and cross, be brought to
the glory of His resurrection. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who
liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God Forever
and ever
For those attending Mass according to the modernist Rite of
Pope Paul VI you will notice something interesting. The Collect, which originated
as the Postcommunion prayer of the Mass for December 18, as above, is the
familiar prayer recited at the Angelus.
Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord,
your grace into our hearts,
that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ your Son
was made known by the message of an angel,
may by his passion and cross
be brought to the glory of his resurrection.
Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Before the 2011 correction of the horrid and often Pelagian
translations of the prayers in the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal,
it read:
Lord, fill our hearts with your love, and as you revealed to
us by an angel the coming of your Son as man, so lead us through his suffering
and death to the glory of his resurrection.
Seriously? How did those of those originate from the same Latin text but reveal two different results? The simple people of faith for a thousand years
knew this prayer by heart. We think of it when we see the painting by Jean
Francoise Millet, The Angelus.
We see more clearly how
evil was the spirit of the radicalistic reformers and modernists before and
following Vatican II. Our ancestors, in their simple times, knew more than us. We have no
excuse to not know what was stolen from us. This was evident this past week in
reading the Office from the Divino Afflatu of St. Pius X, Pope and singing the
Mass yesterday for the Ember with its Lessons, Graduals, Canticle of the Three
Children and Tract.
Here is a little history on the Feast from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
(Exspectatio Partus B.V.M.)
Celebrated on 18 December by nearly the entire Latin Church.
Owing to the ancient law of the Church prohibiting the celebration of feasts
during Lent (a law still in vigour at Milan), the Spanish Church transferred
the feast of the Annunciation from 25 March to the season of Advent, the Tenth
Council of Toledo (656) assigning it definitely to 18 December. It was kept
with a solemn octave. When the Latin Church ceased to observe the ancient custom
regarding feasts in Lent, the Annunciation came to be celebrated twice in
Spain, viz. 25 March and 18 December, in the calendars of both the Mozarabic
and the Roman Rite (Missale Gothicum, ed. Migne, pp. 170, 734). The feast of 18
December was commonly called, even in the liturgical books, "S. Maria de
la O", because on that day the clerics in the choir after Vespers used to
utter a loud and protracted "O", to express the longing of the
universe for the coming of the Redeemer (Tamayo, Mart. Hisp., VI, 485). The
Roman "O" antiphons have nothing to do with this term, because they
are unknown in the Mozarabic Rite. This feast and its octave were very popular
in Spain, where the people still call it "Nuestra Señora de la O". It
is not known at what time the term Expectatio Partus first appeared; it is not
found in the Mozarabic liturgical books. St. Ildephonsus cannot, therefore,
have invented it, as some have maintained. The feast was always kept in Spain
and was approved for Toledo in 1573 by Gregory XIII as a double major, without
an octave. The church of Toledo has the privilege (approved 29 April 1634) of
celebrating this feast even when it occurs on the fourth Sunday of Advent. The
"Expectatio Partus" spread from Spain to other countries; in 1695 it
was granted to Venice and Toulouse, in 1702 to the Cistercians, in 1713 to
Tuscany, in 1725 to the Papal States. The Office in the Mozarabic Breviary is
exceedingly beautiful; it assigns special antiphons for every day of the
octave. At Milan the feast of the Annunciation is, even to the present, kept on
the last Sunday before Christmas. The Mozarabic Liturgy also celebrates a feast
called the Expectation (or Advent) of St. John the Baptist on the Sunday
preceding 24 June.
A few years ago, I discovered the text to a wonderful hymn
by Father Faber of the Oratory, a contemporary of Blessed John Henry Newman, Cong. Orat.
Faber was a prolific hymn-writer, the most famous of which is Faith of Our
Fathers. We will sing of Our Lady's Expectation at the end of
Mass today.
Our Lady's Expectation
Like the dawning of the morning
On the mountains’ golden heights,
Like the breaking of the moon-beams
On the gloom of cloudy nights;
Like a secret told by Angels,
Getting known upon the earth,
Is the Mother’s Expectation
Of Messiah’s speedy birth.
Thou wert happy, Blessed Mother,
With the very bliss of Heaven,
Since the Angel’s salutation
In thy raptured ear was given;
Since the Ave of that midnight,
When thou wert anointed Queen,
Like a river over-flowing
Hath the grace within thee been.
On the mountains of Judea,
Like the chariot of the Lord,
Thou wert lifted in thy spirit
By the uncreated Word;
Gifts and graces flowed upon thee
In a sweet celestial strife
And the growing of thy Burden
Was the lightening of thy life.
And what wonders have been in thee
All the day and all the night,
While the angels fell before thee,
To adore the Light of Light.
While the glory of the Father
Hath been in thee as a home,
And the sceptre of creation
Hath been wielded in thy womb.
And the sweet strains of the Psalmist
Were a joy beyond control,
And the visions of the prophets
Burnt like transports in thy soul;
But the Burden that was growing,
And was felt so tenderly,
It was Heaven, it was Heaven,
Come before its time to thee.
Oh the feeling of thy Burden,
It was touch and taste and sight;
It was newer still and newer,
All those nine months, day and night.
Like a treasure unexhausted,
Like a vision unconfess’d,
Like a rapture unforgotten,
It lay ever at thy breast.
Every moment did that Burden
Press upon thee with new grace;
Happy Mother! Thou art longing
To behold the Saviour’s Face!
Oh his Human face and features
Must be passing sweet to see
Thou hast seen them, happy Mother!
Ah then, show them now to me.
Thou hast waited, Child of David,
And thy waiting now is o’er;
Thou hast seen Him, Blessed Mother,
And wilt see Him evermore!
O His Human Face and Features,
They were passing sweet to see;
Thou beholdest them this moment,
Mother, show them now to me. Amen.
