Considerations and Prayers for Every Day
First Day
Advent is the season in which we are taught to look forward to the coming of Our Lord into the world at Christmas, and also to His second coming at the end of time, to judge the living and the dead. His first coming was to seek and to save that which was lost; the second will be to gather in the fruits of His labors, the souls that are saved. The sacred time of Advent is therefore a preparation for Christmas, established by the Church, and at the same time it leads us to look for the coming of Christ at the end, and to conform our lives to the life of Christ, so that when we meet Him on the Last Day it will not be in fear and trembling, but with joy, because we have been selected to return with Him to heaven. We will, then, with alacrity enter into this employment during this month, knowing that if we have prepared well for His first coming, we shall be in a fit state to receive Him at His second advent. The time of Advent, according to the Church, is a time of penance, not so great as Lent, but the spirit should be the same. Every morning, if possible, attend Mass in honor of the coming of Christ, and on Fridays impose a slight penance on yourself.
Prayer.
O Lord Jesus, Who didst, for the love of us, vouchsafe to reduce Thy incarnated divinity and most divine humanity to the humiliating state of birth and infancy: grant that we, acknowledging Thy infinite wisdom in Thy infancy, Thy power in Thy weakness, and Thy majesty in Thy littleness, may adore Thee, a little one on earth, and behold Thee great in heaven. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in unity with the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.