Ortus Christi: Meditations for Advent

"[...] "The night is past, and the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light." (From the "Epistle" for the First Sunday of Advent). 1st. Prelude. The Foot of the Cross where my sins have all been laid. 2nd. Prelude. The grace of contrition and firm resolution. It is clear from the words which she has chosen for her "Epistle" for the First Sunday of Advent that the Church intends us during this solemn season to think about sin,—the darkness of the past night and the light of the day that is coming and our duty with regard to both. It is not sin in the abstract, but our own personal sins that we are to consider. "Let us cast off the works of darkness." If the Apostle Paul included himself in that "us," we need not fear to do the same. It is meet, when we are thinking on the one hand of Him Who is coming to save us from our sins and on the other of His coming to judge us "according[...]".