Rejoice!

GAUDETE in Dómino semper: íterum dico, gaudéte. Modéstia vestra nota sit ómnibus homínibus: Dóminus enim prope est. Nihil dolíciti sitis: sed in omni oratióne petitiónes vestrae innotéscant apud Deum.

REJOICE in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men: for the Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous : but in every thing by prayer let your petitions be made known to God.

(Introit, Third Sunday of Advent, Philip 4: 4-6)

Advent is not merely anticipating the first Christmas of Christ's birth, but takes St John the Baptist's call to repentance afresh in order to prepare for the second coming, the day of the Lord. We are reminded after every Mass in the old Rite, at the Last Gospel, of this important call:

[St John the Baptist] came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men might believe. He was not the light but was to bear witness of the light. That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.

(beginning of St John's Gospel)

Thus it is that every Mass should be a preparation for Christ's coming; a chance to make fresh our conversion, and anticipate the glorious coming of Christ. For where he once came into the world at Bethlehem, so he comes into the world anew every Mass at the consecration, through the action of the Holy Spirit; and so will he come at the end of time, in glory, to judge the living and the dead.