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The four weeks of Advent are set apart by the Church to commemorate the ages that intervened between the fall of our first parents and the birth of Christ which we celebrate at Christmas. It is a Season of special prayer and penance mingled with joyful expectation, and calculated to fit our souls for a worthy keeping of this great solemnity. Advent is also the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, and as each succeeding year brings us closer to the second coming of Christ as Judge of the world, this holy time is likewise intended to make us ready to meet our Judge.

NT. Be comforted, be comforted, my people: thy salvation cometh quickly: why with grief art thou consumed? for sorrow hath stricken thee: I will save thee, fear not:  for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.


 * V. Drop dew, ye heavens, from above.


 * R. And let the clouds rain the Just One.