The Offertory and Communion recall the devotion of Mary to the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus, during the months before the first Christmas. Her preparation inspires us to pray for priests who have been called by her Christ as the "dispensers of the mysteries of God (Epistle); and to hearken to their "voice...crying in the wilderness" of a world awaiting its God..."prepare ye the way" (Gospel). Christmas will be a complete Christ-Mass if you receive Christ! O Antiphon is O Clavis David.
This Week: Monday 21st December 2020: Feast of St Thomas Ap., the Disciple who was sceptical about the Resurrection of the Lord. Our Lord appeared and asked St. Thomas to put his hands into his wounds. St. Thomas fell to his knees with the famous words: “My Lord and my God,” the words used by the priest in the Mass at the Domine non sum dingus. St. Thomas went on missions to Persia and even India. O Antiphon is O Oriens.
Tuesday 22nd December 2020: and Wednesday 23rd December 2020: No Feast falls on these days, and Mass of the prior Sunday is celebrated. O Antiphons are O Rex gentium and O Emmanuel respectively.
Thursday 24nd December 2020: I cl. Vigil of the Nativity in vestments of violet. St, Gregory tells us: “It was all the more fitting that the Lord should have been born at Bethlehem since Bethlehem means ‘house of bread.’ for it was He who said: I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven.”
And so the Season of the Nativity begins… the new hope, the coming of the Christ child.