The Fathers and the Coming of the Lord: A Patristic Overview of the Propers for the First Sunday of Advent

The Propers of the First Sunday of Advent in the Tridentine Rite constitute one of the most perfectly integrated liturgical programs in the Roman tradition. Their unity is not accidental. The early Roman Church selected these texts because they resonated profoundly with the theology of the Fathers: Advent is a season of desire, repentance, vigilance, and eschatological hope. Long before medieval devotion enriched the cycle, Advent was already, in the patristic mind, a time when the Church stood on tiptoe, straining toward the coming of her Lord.

The Fathers consistently interpreted the prophecies of Christ’s first coming in light of His second, and the moral urgency of the Christian life in light of His judgment. The Propers of this Sunday—Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gospel, Offertory, and Communion—echo that ancient vision with precision. Each text becomes, in the patristic tradition, an icon of the soul turning toward God who comes to save.

The Introit Ad te levavi animam meam (Psalm 24) begins the liturgical year with an ascent of the heart. Augustine reads this psalm as the quintessential cry of the penitent, the catechumen, and the faithful soul who longs to be purified. To “lift the soul” is, for him, both conversion and contemplation: the rising of the mind from earthly things toward God. Gregory the Great echoes the same theme, teaching that to seek God is already to begin the ascent toward Him. The Roman Rite begins here because the Fathers believed that salvation starts with desire—holy longing raised upward toward divine mercy.¹

The Collect, Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, expresses the patristic conviction that fallen humanity cannot save itself. Leo the Great speaks of Christ’s coming as God’s decisive intervention in a “languishing world,” while Cyril of Alexandria interprets the petitions of Advent as a plea for God to overthrow the spiritual powers that enslave mankind. The verb excita—“stir up”—is characteristic of Advent prayers in the ancient Roman sacramentaries. It reflects the Fathers’ insistence that the human heart must be awakened by God, and that God Himself moves toward His people with saving power.²

The Epistle (Romans 13:11–14) stands at the moral centre of the patristic Advent. Ambrose teaches that the “night” represents the disorder of vice, and the “day” the illumination that comes from Christ. Chrysostom emphasises Paul’s urgency: a Christian must live as if the Lord’s return is imminent. Augustine frames these verses in terms of conversion: to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” is to live one’s baptism, to renounce the “works of darkness,” and to step into the light of divine truth. For the Fathers, this passage is the spiritual and ethical doorway into Advent.³

The Gospel (Luke 21:25–33) provides the eschatological horizon without which Advent cannot be understood. Gregory the Great consoles the faithful by teaching that the terrors described by Christ are not signs of doom for His people but signs of the world’s liberation. Augustine interprets the shaking of the heavens as the overthrow of earthly powers; Cyril of Jerusalem sees in these signs the birth pangs of the new creation. For all of them, the instruction “lift up your heads” is the command to hope: the Judge who comes is the Saviour who redeems. In patristic thought, the cosmic imagery is never mere threat; it is divine promise.⁴

The Offertory repeats Ad te levavi, highlighting how the Fathers saw sacrifice and conversion as inseparable. Augustine notes that the true sacrifice is the offering of the contrite heart. Leo the Great teaches that all the faithful must place themselves on the altar with Christ, lifting their souls with Him to the Father. The repetition of Psalm 24 at the Offertory thus becomes an enacted commentary: the ascent of the soul is fulfilled in the Eucharistic oblation, where longing meets consummation.⁵

The Communion verse, Dominus dabit benignitatem (Psalm 84), expresses the patristic understanding of the Incarnation as divine fruitfulness. Augustine saw in the “fruitfulness of the earth” the mystery of Christ’s birth from the Virgin; in the “kindness” of the Lord he saw the grace poured into the world through the Word made flesh. St Bernard of Clairvaux, echoing earlier Fathers, expanded this into the theme of Advent as the season in which grace germinates quietly within the soul. The Communion antiphon therefore gives the final patristic note: Advent is a time not only of longing but of hidden growth.⁶

Together, these Propers form a patristic symphony. They lift the soul upward with Augustine, call upon divine power with Leo, rouse the conscience with Chrysostom, direct hope toward the Last Day with Gregory, and unfold the mystery of Christ’s coming with Bernard. The Tridentine Rite preserves this theology with remarkable fidelity. Through the ancient rhythm of these texts, the faithful still enter Advent in the company of the Fathers, learning anew how to watch, to repent, to desire, and to hope.

Augustine’s commentary on Psalm 24 and Gregory the Great’s application of ascent as spiritual movement appear throughout their homilies and expositions; see public-domain translations in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I and II.
The Collect Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam is preserved in the Gelasian Sacramentary; cf. H. A. Wilson (ed.), The Gelasian Sacramentary (Oxford, 1894), public domain.
Patristic exegesis of Romans 13 appears in Ambrose’s De Officiis, Chrysostom’s homilies on Romans, and Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos; all in public-domain translations.
Patristic interpretations of Luke 21 are found in Augustine’s Sermons, Gregory the Great’s Homilies on the Gospels, and Cyril of Jerusalem’s Catechetical Lectures, all public domain.
Augustine’s doctrine of sacrifice is found in City of God X; Leo the Great’s sermons on the Nativity and the Eucharist develop the theme of self-offering, public domain.
Augustine’s exposition of Psalm 84 and Bernard’s Advent sermons (Sermons 1–5 In Adventu Domini) treat the themes of divine kindness and spiritual fruitfulness; both available in public-domain editions.