Christmas Hope

By Sr. Spero

The Christmas message can seem like a paradox. On one level, it’s the story of a young pregnant girl who is forced by her government to travel many miles in difficult and crowded conditions, and then give birth in the only shelter available—with the animals. It is also the story of great splendor—angels appearing on a hillside in all their radiance and glory, proclaiming tidings of great joy. The first sounds pretty grim, the second so extraordinary it is beyond description.

Which is real—the difficulty or the splendor?

The Christmas message is both. “A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” Darkness is real, but light wins. The angels are singing through the darkness, piercing it with light. The canticle for Lauds during the Christmas season is from Jeremiah 31 and contains these verses: “For the Lord will ransom Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they;” and “I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.”

Christmas hope does not deny evil.  During the Christmas season, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the slaughter of young children who became martyrs for the sake of Christ. We can celebrate this event because we know that evil is overcome, and the message of the angels is true. No matter what the outward circumstances, we have heard “tidings of great joy.”

Bronze sculpture by Daphne du Barry, depicting Mary and innocents

Bronze sculpture by Daphne du Barry, depicting Mary and innocents

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Pastoral Dialogue

By Sr. Fidelis

The Lauds Antiphons for Christmas Day and Week begin with an amazing question: “Whom did you see, shepherds?”

The drama of the text is heightened as a second question follows. “Speak: Announce to us who has appeared on the earth?” Then the answer comes from all the shepherds, “We have seen the newborn One, and choirs of angels praising God together, alleluia, alleluia”.

This wonderful bit of dialogue puts us right in the scene! Can we possibly imagine the joy, excitement and wonder in the faces and voices of the shepherds, returning from their visit to the Bethlehem stable?

The antiphon is a simple one: 4 notes in Mode 2, which are repeated and  give a “conversational ” quality to the tune, illuminating the dialogue.

Quem Viditis

?

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The Dawn of the Tiny King

By Il Fratello

What should I do with all this Christmas news
that dawns like fire-light on ice
that makes a change and says to change–
will I allow the pitiful child, born in a cattle pen
to steal upon the near-hardened strings of my callous heart?
let my eyes see what I at first don’t see
strain my deafened ears to listen once again
for small tender, deep down things?

or casually sleep the night, assuming it to be
like any other night. and say upon accounting
I never saw or heard or knew he came?

low, low, low, low down things
manure and straw, dirt floor and the cold draft
of winter ice-wind through barn boards
who will keep warm the infant savior of the world?
I even I, who most needs saving, can give my cloak
stand watch outside the door,
lean against the drafty wall and block the cold
get mary water, run for joseph’s gentle requests

in the balance of the night I will choose
to scoff or to love
to turn away or to help
to pass by or to stop
and let my heart be struck-smitten-cracked
open by the incarnation of Love

what wild song the angels sing
dancing on the breezes of the midnight star-sky
that calls to us a sweeter sound like
love-struck joy, like earth heaving
mountain ache of now rightly-set things.
They sing salvation come to us in darkest hour
a tiny King, his dawn is fire-light.

Mother&Child

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From A to O

By Sr. Fidelis

We began Advent  with the “A” of Ad te levavi, in the introit for the first Sunday, and Aspiciens from the Night Office. Now in this time of Great Advent we look to the “Great Antiphons” or the “O Antiphons,” as they are called. Our beloved friend and mentor, Dr. Mary Berry of Cambridge, England, once told us that even in these wonderful chants of the season, we have “the Alpha and Omega.”

There is a greater sense of expectation and hope as Great Advent reaches its climax, in both the Mass and Divine Office chants. We often see the word veni (come). It appears in every one of the O Antiphons, which are sung with the Magnificat at Vespers each night. These contain both an invocation, using names for the long awaited Messiah from the Old Testament, and a petition for his coming as Savior. Scriptures are woven together with such imagery and poetry, making these Antiphons one of the great treasures of the early church. We know these antiphons have been sung from the 8th century! They all have basically the same tune, with slight variations according to textural differences, using Mode 2.

Starting on December 17th, the names of the promised Savior are:
O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
O Adonai (O Lord, Master)
O radix Jesse (O root of Jesse)
O clavis David  (O key of David)
O Oriens (O Day Star)
O Rex gentium (O King of the nations)
O Emmanuel (O God with us)

The first letters of these titles, read backwards from the order in which they appear, form the sentence in Latin, ERO CRAS, which means, “I will be (with you) tomorrow“.

Below is a copy of the final O Antiphon, O Emmanuel.  Notice the FA clef, always used with Mode 2 chants.The chant peaks on the phrase, “expectation of the peoples”, then approaches the invocation, “come and save us, O Lord our God”.

O Emmanuel

OEmmanuelchant

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From A to O

By Sr. Fidelis

We began Advent  with the “A” of Ad te levavi, in the introit for the first Sunday, and Aspiciens from the Night Office. Now in this time of Great Advent we look to the “Great Antiphons” or the “O Antiphons,” as they are called. Our beloved friend and mentor, Dr. Mary Berry of Cambridge, England, once told us that even in these wonderful chants of the season, we have “the Alpha and Omega.”

There is a greater sense of expectation and hope as Great Advent reaches its climax, in both the Mass and Divine Office chants. We often see the word veni (come). It appears in every one of the O Antiphons, which are sung with the Magnificat at Vespers each night. These contain both an invocation, using names for the long awaited Messiah from the Old Testament, and a petition for his coming as Savior. Scriptures are woven together with such imagery and poetry, making these Antiphons one of the great treasures of the early church. We know these antiphons have been sung from the 8th century! They all have basically the same tune, with slight variations according to textural differences, using Mode 2.

Starting on December 17th, the names of the promised Savior are:
O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
O Adonai (O Lord, Master)
O radix Jesse (O root of Jesse)
O clavis David  (O key of David)
O Oriens (O Day Star)
O Rex gentium (O King of the nations)
O Emmanuel (O God with us)

The first letters of these titles, read backwards from the order in which they appear, form the sentence in Latin, ERO CRAS, which means, “I will be (with you) tomorrow“.

Below is a copy of the final O Antiphon, O Emmanuel.  Notice the FA clef, always used with Mode 2 chants.The chant peaks on the phrase, “expectation of the peoples”, then approaches the invocation, “come and save us, O Lord our God”.

O Emmanuel

OEmmanuelchant

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ADVENT IV: The Great Mystery

In the fourth century, Christians were asked to mark December 17 as the beginning of a twenty-one-day period, ending at the Epiphany, in which they focused on the great mystery unfolding in the life of the church, the mystery of God incarnate in human flesh. They were asked to turn away from distraction, from either staying at home and losing themselves in domestic chores, or traveling and being continually stimulated by a change of scenery. Christians were to seek out the church as a place where they could gather as a community not merely to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but to allow the power of the Incarnation to pentrate their lives. How can we imagine such a thing? How can we make this season holy, when the world tells us that Christmas is over in just a day, and then we rush toward New Year’s Eve, and merchants begin putting out goods for Valentine’s Day? We might start, presently and simply, by picturing in our mind’s eye the great sign prophesied by Isaiah: “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”

By Kathleen Norris

Excerpted from God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, Edited by Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe (Paraclete Press)

Madonna of the Book

The Madonna of the Book (c.1480) Sandro Botticelli

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Advent’s Thief

Jesus is coming as a thief in the night – “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven…” (Matthew 24:36)

“But how the heck can you be ready for something you don’t know is coming? How can we be ready for the unexpected? Well, we can’t.

“So maybe being awake and alert and expectant—all themes of Advent—has nothing to do with knowing or certainty or prediction, but has a lot to do with being in a state of unknowing. My instinct is always to use me knowingness—my certainty I’m right….—as a sort of loss-prevention program, a system by which I protect myself from the unknown and the unexpected. Which works approximately none of the time.

     “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Matthew 24:42-44)

“Here’s the thing; like the house owner, knowing what to look for as a way of avoiding being robbed is only advantageous if we assume being robbed is a bad thing. But perhaps having an unknowing brain allows us to be taken unaware by the grace of God, which is like a thief in the night. Maybe it’s good news that Jesus has been staking the joint and there will be a break-in. The promise of Advent is that in the absence of knowing everything, we get robbed. There was and is and will be a break-in because God is not interested in our loss-prevention programs but in saving us from ourselves and saving us from our culture and saving us even from our certainties about God’s story itself.

“This holy thief wants to steal from us, and maybe that is literal and metaphoric at the same time. Perhaps, during Advent, a season with pornographic levels of consumption in which our credit card debts rise and our waistbands expand, the idea that Jesus wants to break in and jack some of our stuff is really good news. There’s just a whole lot of crap in my house—again, both literally and metaphorically—that I could well do without.”

I pray that we are caught unaware by the grace of God this Advent—that this thief be allowed to rip into our houses, and steal from us the hurts, fears, jealousy and wants, and replace these with love, peace, and Joy.

Scripture from NIV; other all other quotations from Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber, Copyright 2015, Crown Publishing/Convergent Books.

20151004_084239

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Advent

Fly down the hill
That separates me 
From you
On horseback or wing 
I am listed to be saved
These stones 
I’ve built up 
Around me 
Matter little 
To a love 
like yours
 
Regret 
That old advisor 
Must go violently 
(With joy)
To a dungeon
I once kept for righteous men
 
And I 
(Undoubtedly)
Will step out 
From this gray keep
Of centuries sin
Barefoot 
Unburdened 
To the victory green 
To meet my judge 
My jury and my lover 

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Hope

By Sr. Spero

One of the most hopeful verses I’ve ever read is in the Lauds Canticle on Sundays during Advent. It is from Deuteronomy 32: “In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste.” The passage refers to God coming to Jacob, but in the layers of meaning in all Scriptures, it is also about us. This is where God finds us, or we find him. Not in plenty, or when we are feeling good about life, but when it seems like a desert.

How good of God, and the ancient chant compilers, to remind us in Advent, the great season of preparation, which is often hectic and full of activity–that although he may give us gifts of celebration, family and presents, he finds us when we feel barren, and in a howling waste. This is also the message of Christ’s birth–in a stable when there was no room at the inn. This is the hope that when we feel most forsaken, we will be found.

desert

 

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Rorate Caeli

Rorate Caeli

By Sr. Fidelis
One of the later gems of the Gregorian repertoire is the Advent prose, Rorate Caeli, most likely composed by the Paris Oratorian Pere Bourget in the early 1600’s. The text takes its inspiration from the Book of Isaiah. This simple Verse and Response expresses our deep need and longing for the Savior.

The chant begins with the response which is then repeated between verses. This arching melody in Mode 1 leaps up a 4th on the word caeli”  (heaven), followed by an eight-note gentle descent to the Home Tone RE, perfectly depicting the text taken from Isaiah 45:8 which reads, “Drop down, dew, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the just One.”

The verses in between the response are woven together from a variety of Scripture sources, including Lamentations, Exodus, and several verses from Isaiah. The verses recite on both LA and DO. Listen for this change, which increases the sense of longing both from the captive (verse 1), and from the Redeemer, (verse 2). The leap of a 4th is also heard in the verses, almost as an echo to the opening response.

V) See, Lord, the affliction of your people, and send him whom you are about to send;  send forth the Lamb, the Lord of the earth, from the rock of the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Zion, and he himself may take away the yoke of our captivity.

V)  Be comforted, be comforted my people; your deliverance will come quickly. Why are you consumed with grief, that your sorrow has been renewed? I will save you, do not be afraid; I myself am indeed the Lord your God, the holy One of Israel, your Redeemer.

Rorate Caeli Desuper

Rorate Caeli

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ADVENT III: Being Enlarged

Paul gives us an astonishing understanding of waiting in the New Testament book of Romans, as rendered by Eugene Peterson, ” Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectany.” With such motivation, we can wait as we sense God is indeed with us, and at work within us, as he was with Mary as the Child within her grew.

Though the  protracted waiting time is often the place of distress, even disillusionment, we are counseled in the book of James to “let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete.” Pain, grief, consternation, even despair, need not diminish us. They can augment us by ading to the breadth and depth of our experience, by enriching our spectrum of light and darkness, by keeping us from impulsively jumping into action before the time is ripe, before the “the fulfillment of time.” I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope.

By Luci Shaw

Excerpted from God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, Edited by Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe (Paraclete Press)

The Community of Jesus

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Annunciation by John Donne

22964170095_fba33510c8_z

Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which can not sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which can not die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo! faithful Virgin, yields Himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though He there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He’ll wear,
Taken from thence, flesh, which death’s force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son, and Brother;
Whom thou conceiv’st, conceived; yea, thou art now
Thy Maker’s maker, and thy Father’s mother,
Thou hast light in dark, and shutt’st in little room
Immensity cloister’d in thy dear womb.

22964170095_fba33510c8_z

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Conditor alme siderum

Conditor

By Sr. Fidelis

The Advent hymn for Vespers is a wondrous combination of simplicity and depth. We do not know the author of the text, but it was most likely composed in the 9th century, or even earlier. The themes of preparation for both the coming of Christ at Christmas and the Second Coming on the last day of judgment are woven throughout the verses, along with the theme of light in darkness. The tune is simple, syllabic, and wonderfully balanced, an example of Mode 4 using the lower part of this Mi Mode. Listen to the Monks of Solesmes in France chant this serene hymn and ponder the meaning of the text as we prepare for His coming.

Kind creator of the stars, eternal light of those who believe,
O Christ, Redeemer of all, hear the petitions of your suppliants.

You are the one, having compassion that the race should perish in the destruction of death, who saved the fainting world, giving the remedy to all things.

When the world’s evening drew to an end, as the spouse from his chamber,
he came forth from the most honored womb of a Virgin Mother.

To whose almighty power all are bowed on bended knee,
things of heaven and earth, acknowledging themselves submitted to his command.

O you, Holy One, we ask in faith, O coming judge of the world,
preserve us in our time from the dart of the treacherous foe.

To you, O Christ, king most loving, and to the Father be glory
with the Spirit, the Paraclete, for everlasting ages. Amen.

 

Conditor alme siderum

Conditor

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ADVENT II: The Slowest of Pilgrims

Church of the Transfiguration Advent 2015

The slowest of pilgrims, I have come to see how my own faith, fragile as it is, is assisted and sustained by the calendar, by the lectionary – by the seasons of the Church. I want to share my growing understanding that our participation in this cycle is one way we might, as they say, redeem the time. “The days are evil,” writes Saint Paul, imploring us to do something about it. By deliberating attaching our given days to their holy antecedents, we are able to glimpse an eternal significance embodied in our every moment – redeeming our days from what might otherwise be a melancholy emptiness.

For most of my life, I have assumed that each of us must struggle at his or her faith internally, intellectually, and, for the most part, alone. More recently, however, I’ve suspected that such a solitary journey is nothing short of an aberration – even if it is a very common one – and that we fail to appreciate our connections to – our mutual dependence on – one another, we risk lanquishing in a faith half-realized, more or less sleepwalking.

This error is in some measure remedied by our observing the common calendar together: the calendar provides daily reminders that Christ literally walked the earth, and that centuries of his Saints have found his presence available to them at the every moment since. In attending to the calendar, I have come to appreciate how Christ and his saints encourage me, not simply by my thinking of them, but by my living with them- remembering their feast days, recollecting their exemplary lives of prayer, praying to live likewise.

By Scott Cairns

Excerpted from God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, Edited by Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe (Paraclete Press)

Church of the Transfiguration Advent 2015

Church of the Transfiguration Advent 2015

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Peace

By Sr. Spero

One of the beauties of Gregorian chant has nothing to do with music. By singing the psalms over and over, chant penetrates the soul, and the psalms take on layers of meaning. Monks and nuns for centuries have known this and have experienced the insights that bubble up from the psalms during the Daily Office. This is one example.

For years I have read the translation of Psalm 118:11-12 during Sunday Lauds. “They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns.” I always thought of this as a description of war. But last Sunday I realized it is a description of peace. Even though the enemy (thoughts, emotions, addictions) surround like buzzing bees, they disappear quickly—in the name of the Lord. This could be a definition of Christian peace, based on the reality that bees of one kind or another will always be buzzing around us. Christian peace, not based on calm or absence of conflict, but peace based on the knowledge that when we call on the name of the Lord, there is victory.

bee-on-a-purple-flower-32742-2560x1600

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The “A” in Advent

By Sr. Fidelis

In many of the ancient Graduales, the first page usually displays a beautifully decorated “A”, because the introit for the first week of Advent is Ad te levavi – To you do I lift up my soul.

The same is true of the Antiphonaries. The night office of Matins includes an extraordinary Mode 7 responsory for Advent 1 entitled Aspiciens a longe. This ornate chant weaves scripture and sacred prose together to express our longing for the Savior that has filled our hearts from the beginning of time. Each verse is followed by a portion of the opening text, in the responsory style.

Below is a copy of the first page of this chant from the Processionale Monasticum, originally published in 1893, and reprinted in 1983, including the original neumes from the Hartker Antiphonaire.

Translation

I look from afar and behold, I see the approaching power of God and a cloud touching the whole earth. Go out to meet him and say, “Tell us if you are the one who is to reign over the people of Israel.” vs. 1) And who is of the earth, and a son of men, at the same time and in one person, both rich and poor. vs. 2) You who rule Israel, listen; and you who lead out Joseph like a sheep. vs. 3) Lift up your gates, O princes, and be raised up, you eternal doors, and the King of glory will come in. vs. 4) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Aspiciens a longe

 

Aspiciens A Longe

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The “A” in Advent

By Sr. Fidelis

In many of the ancient Graduales, the first page usually displays a beautifully decorated “A”, because the introit for the first week of Advent is Ad te levavi – To you do I lift up my soul.

The same is true of the Antiphonaries. The night office of Matins includes an extraordinary Mode 7 responsory for Advent 1 entitled Aspiciens a longe. This ornate chant weaves scripture and sacred prose together to express our longing for the Savior that has filled our hearts from the beginning of time. Each verse is followed by a portion of the opening text, in the responsory style.

Below is a copy of the first page of this chant from the Processionale Monasticum, originally published in 1893, and reprinted in 1983, including the original neumes from the Hartker Antiphonaire.

Translation

I look from afar and behold, I see the approaching power of God and a cloud touching the whole earth. Go out to meet him and say, “Tell us if you are the one who is to reign over the people of Israel.” vs. 1) And who is of the earth, and a son of men, at the same time and in one person, both rich and poor. vs. 2) You who rule Israel, listen; and you who lead out Joseph like a sheep. vs. 3) Lift up your gates, O princes, and be raised up, you eternal doors, and the King of glory will come in. vs. 4) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Aspiciens a longe

 

Aspiciens A Longe

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The “A” in Advent

By Sr. Fidelis

In many of the ancient Graduales, the first page usually displays a beautifully decorated “A”, because the introit for the first week of Advent is Ad te levavi – To you do I lift up my soul.

The same is true of the Antiphonaries. The night office of Matins includes an extraordinary Mode 7 responsory for Advent 1 entitled Aspiciens a longe. This ornate chant weaves scripture and sacred prose together to express our longing for the Savior that has filled our hearts from the beginning of time. Each verse is followed by a portion of the opening text, in the responsory style.

Below is a copy of the first page of this chant from the Processionale Monasticum, originally published in 1893, and reprinted in 1983, including the original neumes from the Hartker Antiphonaire.

Translation

I look from afar and behold, I see the approaching power of God and a cloud touching the whole earth. Go out to meet him and say, “Tell us if you are the one who is to reign over the people of Israel.” vs. 1) And who is of the earth, and a son of men, at the same time and in one person, both rich and poor. vs. 2) You who rule Israel, listen; and you who lead out Joseph like a sheep. vs. 3) Lift up your gates, O princes, and be raised up, you eternal doors, and the King of glory will come in. vs. 4) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Aspiciens a longe

 

Aspiciens A Longe

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