Surely, the Lord is Coming Soon
“On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea.”
There’s little that’s traditionally “Advent”-y about Canadian artist Melani Pyke’s Weight of the World Allowed Living Water to Flow. The heart of the image is, of course, the Crucified Christ enthroned upon a mountain, bearing above him a dark cloud, and with a great torrent emerging from his heart. But what Pyke perceives — not only here, but in other of her paintings — is a profound sense of the power of Christ in both his presence and coming that we do well to allow to pervade our anticipation of both his coming, and his coming again.
May the Lord establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints
— The Apostle Paul (1Thess 3:13)
First Sunday of Advent
Texts for this Week
Prayer
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Wake, awake, for night is flying!
The Dominican Sisters of Mary perform a beautiful a cappella rendition of that classic German hymn of Philipp Nicolai, WACHET AUF. The text hymn is based on the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. The opening verse calls followers of Christ to be roused and alert for his Second Coming. Verse 2 describes the joyous scene when the Bridegroom returns and takes His bride, the church, in to the wedding feast. The final verse adores the Lamb of God and describes the glorious scene in heaven, as given in Revelation 19 and 21, where the saints will worship in song forever.
Nicolai’s hymn was so powerful that it in fact inspired one of JS Bach’s best-known and most well-beloved chorales Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 140). The Chorale was written for the last Sunday before Advent, since the season calls for a more modest musical expression which preclude such an ornate composition.
Vox clara ecce intonat — A clear voice, behold, cries out!
Below are two contemporary renditions of the office hymn for the Lauds (early morning prayer) during the Advent season, used in the Latin church from at least the 6th C. (If you’re the kind of person who likes to geek out over the Latin, here it is in parallel with Neale’s translation over at the ever-edifying Thesaurus Precum Latinarum, and here is the hymn tastefully chanted to its original Gregorian melody). Both capture the rich gravitas of the lyrics better than the tradition hymn tune MERTON, although for those who have a strong association between the tune and the beginning of the journey towards Christmas, the more upbeat version from the Folk Hymnal might better fit the mood.
Introitus
Ad te levavi anima meam
This week’s introit comes from Psalm 25:1-3.
Unto you, O Lord, I lift up my soul: O my God, I trust in you. Let me not be ashamed, neither let my enemies laugh at me: for no one who trusts in you will ever be ashamed. Ps. Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths.
Because it is the first psalm in the Western antiphoner, it is often beautifully illuminated in medieval manuscripts with rich themes of the season, and has been subject to multiple extraordinary musical treatments over the centuries, as Stephen Brannen points out. Here’s the text chanted according to the Gregorian melody, and a polyphonic setting of the text by Palestrina.
