Dear Friends,
Attendance at our liturgies and concerts this Advent continues to surprise us. Yesterday’s attendance at the concert by the choristers exceeded the attendance at the Messiah concerts last week! We had to stop selling tickets and the Church was packed. We welcomed large numbers at the last two Sunday’s liturgies – Advent is certainly a time of expectation and hope.
This Sunday morning, we will hold our last Advent choral service with the Gentlemen of the Choir singing the mass of Advent 4 and with some beautiful congregational Advent hymns and Carols. It will be Ben Sheen’s last Sunday Eucharist with us and there will be a special coffee hour after the service. Come and enjoy the peace and beauty of Advent.
As we approach Christmas, we say, or sing, the ‘Great O’ Antiphons used before and after the evening canticle Magnificat that take themes from the Hebrew Scriptures and reflect on how Christ has come to redeem us. On Sunday, the antiphon is:
O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.O King of the nations, and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come, and save the human race,
which you fashioned from clay.
The second story of creation in the book of Genesis describes God forming Adam from the dust of the earth and breathing the breath of life into him. There is a lovely hymn that the Benedictine Sisters at Stanbrook Abbey sing which contains this verse:
In his own image God created man,
And when from dust he fashioned Adam’s face,
The likeness of his own Son was formed:
His Word incarnate, filled with truth and grace.
I love the images of the Christmas hymns and carols that reveal to us God’s precious love for us and how he delights in us; those hymns and carols contain seemingly contradictory statements that, nevertheless, point to the mystery of the incarnation.
The 14th century carol ‘There is no rose of such virtue’ contains this beautiful line:
For in this rose contained was heaven and earth in little space;
Res miranda. (Which means, ‘A marvelous thing’).
And the carol ‘The great God of heaven’ written by Henry Ramsden Bramley, who worked with John Stainer on one of the first revivals of a carol book during the Oxford movement, contains this wonderful verse:
O wonder of wonders, which none can unfold:
The Ancient of days is an hour or two old;
The Maker of all things is made of the earth,
Man is worshipped by angels, and God comes to birth!
The antiphon ‘O magnum mysterium’ even elevates the animal kingdom who are the first to worship after Mary and Joseph:
O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
iacentem in praesepio!O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the newborn Lord,
lying in a manger!
Such sentiments make me return to Mr. Bramley’s carol and join in the refrain:
Then let us adore him, and praise his great love:
To save us poor sinners he came from above.
I look forward to seeing you for the last great mass of Advent and then rejoicing with you at the news of our Savior’s birth.
Carl,
your priest and pastor