Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum:
quod parasti ante faciem omnium populorum

Canticle of Simeon
Luke 2:30-31

In keeping with ancient Church tradition, this week the Holy Church celebrates the Ember Days, a time of fasting and penance by which we can prepare ourselves with a supernatural spirit for the Mystery of the Birth of Our Savior and Redeemer. On Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of the Third Week of Advent, we are called to gather in prayer and to unite our sacrifices to implore the Throne of the Divine Majesty to deign to bless our lives and the seasons of the year, to make our fields fertile, and above all to obtain for us worthy Ministers of the Word and of the Sacraments, true Pastors of the Christian people, remembering how in ancient times ordinations were celebrated during Embertide. 

This day, although consecrated to fasting, is also a day on which the Blessed Virgin is honored. Therefore on this day, the Gospel of the Annunciation, Missus est angelus (“The angel was sent”), is read at Matins and Mass. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux composed his splendid homilies in honor of the Blessed Mother for this very occasion. 

We are passing through a terrible moment for both the Church and the whole world: dark forces are conspiring against Christ and against those who believe in Him, in the name of an infernal revolution. What the children of darkness want to impose today is exactly the opposite of the true “Great Reset” which was the Redemption: by the Incarnation of Our Lord and His Passion and Death, we have been redeemed from slavery to Satan, to which we were all submitted, through the fall of Adam, our progenitor. Today, through the cancellation of any trace of Good in the world, these forces of darkness seek to prepare for the coming of the Antichrist, in the mad attempt to submit us once again to the impious and deadly tyranny of Satan. But this reckless plan, the fruit of the blindness and pride of the Enemy, will never be able to defeat God, who lives and reigns forever and ever. 

In the silence of our holy waiting for the promised Savior, we venerate the Annunciation to Mary Most Holy, who in her humility consented to receive the Second Person of the Holy Trinity to be made flesh in Her virginal womb, which had been preserved from every stain of sin. By her consent through that blessed Fiat, our salvation would be realized. 

To us too, despite our unworthiness, the Lord sends an angel to ask us for our Fiat. He asks us to believe in Him, to place our hopes only in Him, to pray to Him to answer our prayers and to save us in the storm that is raging around us. 

If we know how to respond with humility, following the example of the Virgin Mother of God, we will have the grace to discover that the Lord never leaves us alone in dangers and difficulties, and that the powers of Hell can do nothing if our soul is in the grace of God and our heart is ready to welcome within itself the Holy Trinity. 

The Most Holy Nativity of Our Lord is approaching, in which we celebrate a historic event – the true “Great Reset” – which snatched redeemed souls from Satan by means of the Blood of the Lamb. Let us commit ourselves to ensuring that this Christmas constitutes a spiritual rebirth for each one of us, for our families, for our communities and for our Country: this Christmas, we ourselves can be the Manger in which the Blessed Virgin will lay the Child King, “the Light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel” (Lk 2:32). 

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop 

December 16, 2020
Feria IV Quattuor Temporum Adventus