FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE MESSIAH’S COMING
The liturgy of Advent now turns its full attention to the coming birth of the Lord. The antiphons concentrate on it: for example, the entrance antiphon, “Drop down dew from above, you heavens, and let the clouds rain down the Just One; let the earth be opened and bring forth a Savior” (Isa 45: 8); and the communion antiphon, “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son; and his name will be called Emmanuel” (Isa 7: 14). We are making a definite transition, therefore, to the other major theme of the Advent liturgy: expectation of the incarnation of the Word.
Adrien Nocent OSB, The Liturgical Year
Advent IV
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.
The collect for the fourth Sunday of Advent is found in some sixty manuscript sources from the eighth century onwards and was popularized in the Angelus.
This collect prepares us for the gospel of the day and is comprehensive in setting out the whole mystery of salvation – from the moment of the annunciation, through the incarnation, to the passion and cross, and finally to the resurrection. In this great arc of God’s action in Christ, we are brought to glory. The petition of this collect, that God’s grace is poured forth into our hearts, opens us up to the realization of what is going on, of what God is achieving in us as we journey through the liturgical celebrations of these mysteries. It is a grace that is, characteristically, poured out as “gift for you: a full measure, pressed down shaken together, and running over . . .” This is a good example of the sort of oblique scriptural allusion which abounds in the phrases of these old Roman collects.
These prayers of Advent set out the liturgical-theological store. The collects of the Roman liturgy represent an astonishing treasure house of new and old – the publicly spoken and awe-inspired proclamation across the generations of what God has done for us in Christ. These prayers maybe deserve more attention and more care than they often receive.
Adrian Porter SJ