It’s the II Sunday of Advent, 1st Class, with the color of Violet. In this episode: the meditation: “In Him the Gentiles Shall Hope”, today’s news from the Church: “Bishop Schneider Warns of the Islamization of Europe”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop.

• “In Him the Gentiles Shall Hope” – From Advent to Epiphany
  • https://angeluspress.org/products/from-advent-to-epiphany
  
  

• https://fsspx.news/en/news/kazakhstan-bishop-schneider-warns-islamization-europe-55744

• https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop

Saint Ambrose of Milan is one of the great figures of the early Church, a man whose life changed direction so suddenly and so dramatically that even his contemporaries saw the hand of God at work. Born around 340 into a Roman Christian family, Ambrose was trained for public service and became a respected civil governor in northern Italy. He was known for his fairness, calm temperament, and gift for reconciling factions. When the bishop of Milan died in 374, the city was split between opposing theological parties. Ambrose entered the cathedral simply to keep the peace, but as he spoke, a child’s voice rang out from the crowd calling him to be bishop. The whole assembly took it as a sign, and the overwhelming acclamation left him no room to refuse. Amazingly, Ambrose was not yet baptized. Within a week he received baptism, ordination, and consecration, stepping into a life of service he had never sought.

He spent the rest of his years becoming the pastor his people needed. Ambrose devoted himself to Scripture, theology, and prayer, studying day and night to teach the faith with clarity. He defended the full divinity of Christ against Arianism, which still lingered in parts of the empire. At the same time, he brought extraordinary compassion to his work. He comforted the poor, defended the weak, and was fearless even with emperors. In a famous episode, he gently but firmly required Emperor Theodosius to do public penance after a violent massacre in Thessalonica, showing that even rulers were accountable to the Gospel. Ambrose did not humiliate the emperor; he simply insisted that repentance was the path back to communion.

His preaching was so vivid that people crowded the cathedral to hear him. Among those listeners was a restless young man named Augustine, who sat in the back, skeptical but curious. Ambrose’s warmth, intelligence, and evident love for Christ gradually dissolved Augustine’s resistance. Through the bishop’s influence, Augustine found his way to baptism, and their friendship became one of the most beautiful in Christian history.

Ambrose died in 397, mourned as a father by a city he had shepherded with courage and gentleness. His writings on the sacraments, the moral life, and the mysteries of Christ shaped Western Christianity for centuries.

Traditions surrounding his feast on December 7 flourished especially in Milan, where he remains the city’s patron. The Ambrosian liturgy, with its distinctive chants and melodies, honors his legacy, and families once marked the day with simple gifts of honeyed bread, recalling a legend that bees foretold his eloquence as an infant. He is also invoked as a patron of beekeepers, scholars, and catechumens.

Saint Ambrose, faithful bishop and teacher of the Church, pray for us!

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