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Office Of Readings | Advent Monday Week 1 | From A Pastoral Letter By Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop | The Season Of Advent
‘The season of Advent.’
Saint Charles Borromeo reflects on Advent as the ‘acceptable time’, drawing from Saint Paul’s language to describe a season charged with divine initiative. His tone is pastoral and earnest, urging the faithful not merely to recall a historical event but to participate anew in the grace that Christ’s coming has unleashed. For Saint Charles, the whole mystery of salvation is concentrated in this season: the Father’s mercy, the sending of the Son, the overthrow of Satan’s tyranny, the revelation of truth, the training in virtue, and the inheritance of eternal life. Advent is therefore not only a commemoration but a living conduit of God’s saving work.
Saint Charles emphasises that Christ’s first coming in the flesh is inseparably linked to his present and future comings. The power of the Incarnation must be received again each year, for Christ continues to come spiritually to those who remove obstacles to his presence. Advent is not nostalgia; it is readiness for a visitation that is always imminent. This places responsibility on the believer: through faith, the sacraments, and obedience, we must allow the grace Christ has already earned to become effective in us. Saint Charles understands Advent as a school of desire, where the Church trains our hearts to expect Christ with the fervour of prophets and patriarchs.
The Church is a tender and attentive mother. Through the liturgy—its hymns, rites, and sacred texts—she forms within us the same longing that filled the saints of old. She teaches grateful remembrance for the first coming and vigilant preparation for the second. Saint Charles implicitly suggests that Advent is a remedy for spiritual negligence: by entering more deeply into the season, we cultivate the interior disposition that welcomes Christ ‘at any hour and moment’.
From A Pastoral Letter By Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop | The Season Of Advent
Beloved, now is the acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation: the great season of Advent. This is the time eagerly awaited by the patriarchs and prophets, the time that holy Simeon rejoiced at last to see. This is the season that the Church has always celebrated with special solemnity. We too should always observe it with faith and love, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the mercy and love he has shown us in this mystery. In his infinite love for us, though we were sinners, he sent his only Son to free us from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into its innermost recesses, to show us truth itself, to train us in right conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.
Each year, as the Church recalls this mystery, she urges us to renew the memory of the great love God has shown us. This holy season teaches us that Christ’s coming was not only for the benefit of his contemporaries; his power has still to be communicated to us all. We shall share his power, if, through holy faith and the sacraments, we willingly accept the grace Christ earned for us, and live by that grace and in obedience to Christ.
The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace.
In her concern for our salvation, our loving mother the Church uses this holy season to teach us through hymns, canticles and other forms of expression, of voice or ritual, used by the Holy Spirit. She shows us how grateful we should be for so great a blessing, and how to gain its benefit: our hearts should be as much prepared for the coming of Christ as if he were still to come into this world. The same lesson is given us for our imitation by the words and example of the holy men of the Old Testament.
Christian Prayer With Jesus
Lord Jesus Christ,
as your Church enters the holy season of Advent,
prepare our hearts to receive you with the same longing
that filled the prophets and patriarchs of old.
Remove from us every obstacle to your presence,
cleanse what is sinful, heal what is wounded,
and strengthen what is weak.
You came once in humility to free us from the power of sin;
come now in grace to dwell within us,
and come at last in glory to lead us home to the Father.
May the memory of your first coming
kindle in us a deeper faith,
and may the hope of your coming again
make us steadfast in obedience,
joyful in gratitude,
and watchful in prayer.
For you live and reign for ever and ever.
Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Advent – The liturgical season of four weeks that prepares for the celebration of Christ’s birth and for his second coming in glory. A time of watchfulness, repentance, and hope.
Incarnation – The mystery by which the Son of God took on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary for our salvation.
Satan – A created spiritual being who rebelled against God; a fallen angel who opposes God’s work and seeks to lead humanity into sin.
Grace – God’s free and undeserved gift of his own life and help, making us capable of living as his children and achieving eternal life.
Sacraments – Visible signs instituted by Christ that confer grace. They are the ordinary means by which God applies Christ’s saving work to believers.
Patriarchs and Prophets – Old Testament figures who prepared the way for Christ: patriarchs such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Malachi.
Tyranny of Satan – A traditional expression describing the state of humanity under the power of sin before the redemption accomplished by Christ.
Obedience to Christ – The believer’s submission of heart, mind, and actions to the teachings and will of Jesus, made possible by grace.
Spiritual indwelling – The presence of Christ in the soul through faith, charity, and the sacraments; not merely symbolic but a real interior communion.
Heirs of eternal life – A biblical expression meaning that through Christ we have been adopted as God’s children and destined to share in his everlasting kingdom.
Saint Leo considers the Lord’s instruction that Christian justice must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. He frames this not as an expansion of legal detail but as a transformation of motive. The justice of the kingdom is marked by compassion, because mercy reflects the way God has acted toward humanity. Leo recalls the central Christian claim: God restores the guilty not by force of law but by forgiveness. The transition from sin to innocence is not earned but given, and this gift becomes the model for Christian conduct. Justice is therefore fulfilled when believers imitate the divine pattern—allowing mercy to rise above strict judgment [ … ]
Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for the joy of his Resurrection and for the mission of the disciples, to evangelize, bringing to people all over the world the good news of Jesus Christ, of our salvation. Because they have believed in Jesus, they may ask what they wish of the Father in the Son’s name. In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of the miracles worked by the disciples, these the signs and wonders which they are empowered to perform in order to help people to believe [ … ]
Peter says to Jesus, in effect: ‘Look, we have left everything, and we’ve followed you. So what do we get in return? Where is the return on our risk, on our investment?’ [ … ]
