If the Illatio for the First Sunday of Advent in the Hispano-Mozarabic Missal concentrated on John the Baptist, the Illatio for the Second Sunday of Advent highlights the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially articulating Mary’s perpetual virginity and the means by which Christ’s conception took place:
[Protocol]: Dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare est / Domini nostri Iesu Christi adventum in mirabilibus praedicare,
It is right and just, proper and salutary / to declare the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with wonders,
[Body]: quem inter homines et propter homines nasciturum / caelestis nuntius enarravit, / virgo terrena dum salutaretur audivit, / Spiritus Sanctus in utero dum veniret creavit; / ut Gabriele pollicente, Maria credente, Dei vero Spiritu cooperante, / sequeretur salutationem angelicam securitas, / promissionem perficeret veritas, / et Altissimi obumbrante virtute, / disceret se esse fecunda virginitas.
Whom [i.e., Christ] the heavenly messenger declared / was to be born among human beings and for human beings, / the earthly virgin heard when she was greeted, the Holy Spirit created in her womb when he came; / so that with Gabriel promising, Mary believing, and indeed the Spirit of God co-acting, / freedom from care followed the angelic salutation, / truth brought about the promise, / and with the power of the Most High overshadowing, / virginity learned to be fertile.
Ecce concipies in utero et paries filium, Angelus praedicavit. / Et quomodo fiet istud? Maria respondit. / Sed quia hoc credendo, non dubitando respondit, / implevit Spiritus Sanctus quod Angelus spopondit.
Behold, the angel predicted that you would conceive in your womb and give birth to a son. / And how is this to be done? Mary answered. / But because she answered believing this and not doubting it, / the Holy Spirit implanted what the angel promised.
Virgo ante conceptum, virgo semper futura post partum, / Deum suum prius mente, dehinc ventre concepit. / Salutem mundi prima suscepit virgo plena gratia Dei, / et ideo vera Mater Filii Dei.
A virgin before having conceived, a future virgin forever after birth, / she conceived her God first in her mind, and later in her womb. / The virgin full of the grace of God received the salvation of the world, / and therefore is the true Mother of the Son of God,
[Eschatocol]: Quem adorant Angeli, Throni, Dominationes et Potestates, ita dicentes:
Whom [i.e., Christ] the Angels, Thrones, Dominations and Powers adore, thus declaring:
Unlike the Illatio for the First Sunday of Advent, whose concentration on John the Baptist perfectly mirrored the gospel readings assigned in both Sunday cycles for that day, there is no overwhelming concentration on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the two cycles of the Hispano-Mozarabic lectionary (the Liber Commicus) for the Second Sunday of Advent. The gospel is the same in both cycles (Matthew 11:2-15), depicting John in prison sending his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the One-Who-Is-to-Come and Jesus’ tribute to John in reply. The closest reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary appears in the first reading of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year 2, where Isaiah 26:17 makes reference to “the pregnant woman [who] approaches the time to give birth.” Nonetheless this Illatio could certainly deepen the appreciation of Roman Rite worshipers for the increasing concentration on the figure of the Blessed Virgin as Christmas draws near.
Featured image: Title page of the Missale Mixtum secundum regulam beati Isidori (1500)
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