Having explored the figures of John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the two comings of Christ in the first three Illationes for Advent in the Hispano-Mozarabic rite, the Illatio for the Fourth Sunday of Advent praises God for revealing the mystery of God’s hidden wisdom manifest in time (Colossians 1:26-27) and pleads that the effects of the redemption might be made manifest at the Parousia. [I again remind the reader that my slavishly literal translations are not intended for liturgical use.]
[Protocol]: Dignum et iustum est, vere nobis per omnia expedibile / tuam nos clementiam, omnipotens Pater, / quibus possumus semper laudibus praedicare;
It is right and just, truly proper for us through all things / always to proclaim your mercy, almighty Father, / with whatever praises we can;
[Body]: qui bonitate nos ingenita condidisti, / ac serpentis antique fraude deceptos / gratuita miseratione a morte volens eripere, / Filium tuum, quem pro nobis in carne missurus eras, / ad terras venturum nasciturumque de virgine / longe antea praedixisti, / eiusque nativitatis adventum praeconantibus sanctis praenuntiasti; / ut expectatus diu qui fuerat repromissus, / magnum mundo faceret gaudium / in plenitudine temporum praesentatus.
You created us by your uncreated goodness, / and wishing to rescue those deceived by the ancient trickery of the serpent / from death by your gratuitous compassion, / you foretold long before it happened / that your Son, whom you would send for us in the flesh, / would come to earth and be born of a virgin, / and you announced beforehand the coming of his birth by holy prophecies; / so that the one awaited for a long time who had been promised / might bring great joy to the world, having been made manifest in the fullness of time.
Unde petimus ac rogamus, / ut qui plasma tuum, sicut verus pius et misericors, / perire non passus es, / sed per humilem adventum Filii tui Domini nostri / quod perierat revocasti, / quod iam inventum et reparatum ac revocatum est / sic protegas, sic custodias, sic sanes, sic defendas, sic liberes, / ut in illo adventu terribili, / quod iteratum illos venturus est iudicare / a quibus et pro quibus est iudicatus, / tales inveniat quos redemit, / ut in aeternum possideat quos pretio sui sanguinis acquisivit.
Therefore we seek and request, / that you might not suffer your creature made of earth to perish / as you are truly faithful and merciful, / but through the humble coming of your Son, our Lord / you have revived that which might die, / so you might protect, so you might guard, so you might make healthy, so you might defend, so you might free / that which already was found and repaired and revived, / that in that fearful coming, / when for a second time he will come to judge from those and for those he was judged / that he might find those whom he redeemed / so that he might possess in eternity those whom he acquired at the price of his own blood.
[Eschatocol]: Ut cum hymnifluis affectibus redemptorum, tecum et cum Sancto Spiritu / sine fine laudetur parili concentu, / cum Angelis et Archangelis laudantibus atque ita dicentibus:
So that with hymns flowing with emotions of the redeemed, with you and with the Holy Spirit / without end he might be praised with equal singing, / with Angels and Archangels praising and so proclaiming:
Both the Illationes for the Third and Fourth Sundays of Advent may be profitably compared with the present-day Roman Rite Preface 1 for Advent, intended for use from the First Sunday of Advent until 16 December. It should also be noted that in the contemporary Hispano-Mozarabic rite, the appointed readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent are the same in Years 1 and 2 and powerfully complement this Illatio: Isaiah 24:16-23; Psalm 95:12-13, 1; 1 Corinthians 15:22-31 and Jesus’ apocalyptic discourse in Mark 13.
Featured image: Title page of the Missale Mixtum secundum regulam beati Isidori (1500).
Leave a Reply