Feast days of the week 7-13 December, A.D. 2008 (1962 liturgical calendar).

Sunday, 7 December, 2008
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT (I)
"Numerous allusions appear in the Liturgy of this day to Jerusalem and her people. Let us be filled with the sentiments of hope and of joy, for the coming of Jesus is nigh. Let us prepare the way in our hearts for the Messias: Our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ.”

Collect: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Thine only-begotten Son: that through His coming we may deserve to serve Thee with purified minds: Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.
Epistle: Bl. Paul the Apostle to the Romans, 15:4-13.
[“A root of Jesse shall rise up” for the salvation of Hebrews and Gentiles.]
Gospel: Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, 11:2-10.
[John the Baptist, sent “to prepare the way for the Messias”, puts the question to Jesus: “Art Thou He that art to come?” Reply of Jesus to the Precursor.]

ST AMBROSE, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church (III)
"This Bishop of Milan was one of the four great doctors of the Western Church. As an orator he opposed the heretics, as a writer he enriched Latin literature with his sacred Hymns. He died A.D. 397."

Collect: Stir up Thy power, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and come: that from the threatening dangers of our sins we may deserve to be rescued by Thy protection, and to be saved by Thy deliverance: Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.
Epistle: From the Second Letter of Bl. Paul the Apostle to Timothy, 4:1-8.
[St. Paul admonishes Timothy to hold firmly the sound doctrine of the Gospel. The Doctors of the Church were also renowned for their orthodoxy and their theological learning.]
Gospel: Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, 5:13-19.
[Like the Apostles, the Doctors of the Church are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.]

Remarks are abstracted from The Daily Missal and Liturgical Manual, from Editio Typica of the Roman Missal and Breviary, 1962
(Baronius Press Limited, London, 2004, in conjunction with the Fraternal Society of St. Peter, www.baroniuspress.com)