“Stay awake and be ready! For you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” (Mt 24: 42a, 44)11/5/2020 "The Lord says: ‘I am pondering thoughts of peace and not of affliction; you shall call upon me, and I will hear you; and I will bring you back from all the lands where you are held captive.”
(Jer 29: 11-12, 14) This is a message of great hope as we near Advent, the season of hope and anticipation. And let us also regard it as a message for hope in our times: There is turmoil in our world, but through our faith we have been given the opportunity to align our footsteps with our Lord (remember Sunday’s Offertory Antiphon--“Guide my footsteps, O Lord, according to your word, so that no iniquity may ever gain the upper hand, O Lord.” (Psalm 119:133)--to be led at last out of darkness and into His Love. The Church’s juxtaposition of Christ the King Sunday and Advent gives a sense of continuous anticipation—both for our Lord’s Second Coming, and for our Lord’s Nativity. Indeed, our whole lives are an Advent, as we await our Lord’s coming, and as we constantly seek to live in a way that will lead us closer to Him. How shall we live out this call of “waiting and watching” in the time between now and Christmas? What music will lead us into a state of greater readiness to meet our Lord when He comes? Here are two pieces to get us started: The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns (I like this recording because of the congregational singing—we eagerly await the day when we will be able to sing in full voice together again!) This hymn is in our hymnal under “Advent,” but the content relates just as much to the Second Coming. Here is John Brownlie’s poem in full; only four or five of the seven stanzas appear in most modern hymnals. The King shall come when morning dawns and light triumphant breaks, when beauty gilds the eastern hills, and life to joy awakes. Not as of old a little child to bear, and fight, and die, but crowned with glory like the sun that lights the morning sky. O brighter than the rising morn when He, victorious, rose and left the lonesome place of death, despite the rage of foes. O brighter than that glorious morn shall this fair morning be, when Christ, our King, in beauty comes, and we His face shall see. The King shall come when morning dawns, and earth's dark night is past; O haste the rising of that morn, the day that aye shall last. And let the endless bliss begin, by weary saints foretold, when right shall triumph over wrong, and truth shall be extolled. The King shall come when morning dawns, and light and beauty brings; "Hail, Christ the Lord!" Thy people pray, come quickly, King of kings! Ad te levavi ~ Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) Rheinberger’s setting of the Offertory Antiphon for the 1st Sunday of Advent is from his collection of 9 Advent Motets (Some of our choir members will remember singing "Benedixisti, Domine" from this same collection 😊) “Ad te levavi animam meam: Deus meus, in te confido, non erubescam: neque irrideant me inimici mei: etenim universi, qui te exspectant, non confundeturer.” (Ps 25:1-3) “Unto you, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul; O my God, I trust in you, let me not be put to shame; do not allow my enemies to laugh at me; for none of those who are awaiting you will be disappointed.” What other pieces can you think of that will help us ready ourselves for our Lord’s coming?
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