O, Dayspring!

December 21st 

O Dayspring, brightness of the everlasting light, Son of Justice, come to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death!

O Oriens* antiphon

These are the last words of David:

“The inspired utterance of David son of Jesse,
the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High,
the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
the hero of Israel’s songs:

The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me;
his word was on my tongue.
The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:
‘When one rules over people in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God,
he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings grass from the earth.’
If my house were not right with God,
surely he would not have made with me an everlasting covenant,
arranged and secured in every part;
surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation
and grant me my every desire.”

2 Samuel 23:1-5 (NIV)

---

*If this sounds familiar it’s because O Come, O Come Emmanuel is based on the Greater  [‘O’] Antiphons. As I may have said before, they are very, very old, and have been translated, paraphrased and re-translated many times.

---

Here is another John Wesley hymn: literally the only version of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing I found that I liked, by the U.S. Army Band of all things. (I think it’s just because it needs a lot of deep voices, but most of the men’s choruses that did it used the Willcocks arrangement, which I loathe with a passion.)

---

…and here is an image of another spiral galaxy, M74, from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.

Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

O Adonai!

December 18th 

O Adonai, and Ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and gave him the law in Sinai: come to redeem us with an outstretched arm!

O Adonai antiphon

Meanwhile Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. …Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within the bush.

God said “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob… I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings.  I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey… The Israelites cry for help has come to Me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

….And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: I am the Lord that appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty [El-shaddai]: and my name ADONAI* did not shew them. Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am the Lord who will bring you out from the work-prison of the Egyptians, and will deliver you from bondage: and redeem you with a high arm, and great judgments. And I will take you to myself for my people, I will be your God: and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the work-prison of the Egyptians: And brought you into the land, concerning which I lifted up my hand to give it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: and I will give it you to possess: I am the Lord.

Exodus 3:1,7-8,9-10 (HCSB)
Exodus 6:2-3,6-8 (DRB)

---

*The word is actually Yehovah in the Masoretic Text. But because that is usually translated as ‘Lord God” or “Lord,’ and Adonai is normally translated as ‘lord’ or ‘Lord of Lords,’ the creators of the Douay Rheims Bible  —who, in their infinite wisdom, decided to make an English translation by using for their text yet another translation, the Vulgate— translated it back to ‘Adonai.’ This is, however, very much in accord with the complete lack of scholarship on this blog, and it works out quite conveniently for us, so no more about it.

Here is Robin Mark et al. singing Days of Elijah on Youtube and Spotify.

---

…and here is a “close-up” of the Lagoon Nebula from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.

Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

O, Wisdom!

December 17th 

O Wisdom, that comes out of the mouth of the Most High, that reaches from one end to another, and does mightily and sweetly order all things: come to teach us the way of prudence!

O Sapientia antiphon

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
And I find knowledge and discretion.
…The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,
before His works of old.
From everlasting I was established,
From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.
Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills I was brought forth;
While He had not yet made the earth and the fields,
Nor the first dust of the world.
When He established the heavens, I was there,
When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
When He made firm the skies above,
When the springs of the deep became fixed,
When He set for the sea its boundary
So that the water would not transgress His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Then I was beside Him, as a master workman;
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing always before Him,
Rejoicing in the world, His earth,
And having my delight in the sons of men.

“Now therefore, O sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways, heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. For he who finds me finds life And obtains favor from the LORD.

Proverbs 8:22-35 (NASB)

---

Here is the Talbot Brother’s Advent Suite on Youtube and Spotify, which I have been waiting all year to post.  I actually meant to post it at the beginning of Advent, and Veni, Veni Emmanuel now, because Veni is actually a paraphrase of the Great Antiphons, which are very, very old. I’m not sure what happened there.

---

…and here is an image of a galaxy, Galaxy UGC 12591, that is not quite lenticular and not quite a spiral from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.

Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

Truly, Tomorrow

December 16th 

O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be?
For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.
Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel at me?
The thing ye behold’s a divine mystery.

translation of the O Virgo Virganum antiphon

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet he did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Matthew 1:18-23 (NIV)

---

Because I got ahead of myself and covered Mary’s story in July, and the context of Isaiah’s ‘Emmanuel prophecy’ is actually pretty complicated, I thought we’d look at Joseph’s point of view, because that really required a lot of faith too, and I feel like he doesn’t get enough credit.

Here is Pentatonix’s version of Mary Did You Know? on Youtube and Spotify. (Voctave also has an amazing version with Mark Lowry, but they already got a turn, and the Pentatonix one is easier listening, even if Voctave’s is just technically wow. You know what? Just listen to both of them. There, problem solved.)

---

Today’s picture in last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic is boring, so here is Van Eyck’s Annunciation because I adore this painting.

---

the Craftsman

December  14th

 The work has need that the Craftsman come, the King himself, and repair the house which now lies decayed under its roof. For He made the body and the limbs of clay… O You Ruler, You just King, who hold the keys, who opens life… truly in need we speak these words, entreating Him who shaped the race of man, that He would choose not to speak His doom on us, who here in sadness and in prison sit sorrowing all the glad journey of the sun. When on us the Lord of life shows forth His light, may He be a shield to our souls, clothe the frail mind with splendor, and grant us worth, whom He chose to His glory…

from the Christ of Cynewulf

But you, LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations. You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come. For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity. The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. For the LORD will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.

He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD: “The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” So the name of the LORD will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the LORD.

Psalm 102:12-22 (NIV)

---

Here is Sidewalk Prophets Oh What a Glorious Night on Youtube and Spotify.

On that topic, because it’s hilarious, and I can’t resist:

Also because the image from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic is boring, but here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

Paying attention

December 7th

“Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.” 

1 Samuel 15:22 (HCSB)

…You see that the sun, as it rises, shows us the size of objects which we could only make out obscurely during the night. Remember that, as the inner light increases, you will see the imperfections which you have seen heretofore as basically much greater and more harmful than you had seen them up to the present. You will find in your heart all the weaknesses which you will need to lose confidence in your strength; but this experience, far from discouraging you, will help to uproot all your self-confidence, and to raze to the ground the whole edifice of pride. Nothing marks so much the solid advancement of a soul, as this view of his wretchedness without anxiety and without discouragement.

The wise and diligent traveller watches his every step, and always has his eyes upon the part of the road directly in front of him. But he does not turn constantly backward to count every step, and to examine every track. He would lose time in going forward. A soul whom God truly leads by the hand (because I am not speaking of those who are learning to walk, and who are still looking for the road), ought to watch his path, but with a simple, serene vigilance, limited to the present, and undisturbed by self-love. It takes a continual attention to God’s will to accomplish this every moment, and not a turning back upon self to assure ourselves of our condition, while God wishes us to be unsure of it. This is why the Psalmist said, “My eyes are raised to the Lord, and it is he who will deliver my feet from the snares.”

Notice that to conduct his feet safely among roads sown with snares, instead of lowering his eyes to examine every step, he raises them instead to the Lord. We never watch over ourselves so well as when we walk with God present before our eyes, as God commanded Abraham. We should follow God’s will step by step.

Whoever conforms to it in all things watches over himself, and sanctifies himself in everything. If then we should never lose the presence of God, we should never cease to watch over ourselves, but with a simple, affectionate, serene and detached vigilance; while that other vigilance that we seek for self-assurance is sharp, uneasy and full of self-interest. It is not in our own light, but in that of God, that we must walk. We cannot see the holiness of God, without being horrified by the least infidelities. We examine ourselves, not for our own interest, but to follow the advice, and to accomplish the pure will of God. Moreover, we abandon ourselves in his hands, and we are as glad to know ourselves in the hands of God as we should be sorry to be in our own.

…Our life is a continual combat, but a combat in which Jesus Christ fights with us.

from Fenelon’s Christian Perfection (6 – Faults and Temptations)

---

I was pretty sure that I’d already posted part of this passage, but I couldn’t find it in my index. So, sorry if this is redundant.

Here’s Pentatonix’s God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen on Youtube and Spotify.

…and here is an image of another galactic collision (in Corvus) from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.

Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

I honestly have no idea what this Feast consists of, but I’m pretty sure it’s not actually about socks

December 6th, The Feast of St. Nicholas

But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

1 John 3:17 (NKJV)

The double-minded person may have a feeling for the Good. If someone should speak of the Good, especially if it were done in a poetical fashion, then he is quickly moved, easily stimulated to melt away in emotion. Suppose the world goes a little against him and then someone should tell him that God is love, that His love surpasses all understanding, encompassing in His Providence even the sparrow that may not fall to the earth without His willing it. If a person speaks in this way, especially in a poetical manner, he is gripped. He reaches after faith as after a desire, and with faith he clutches for the desired help. But perhaps the help is delayed. Instead of it a sufferer comes to him whom he can help. But this sufferer finds him impatient, forbidding. This sufferer must be content with the excuse, “that he is not at the moment in the spirit or the mood to concern himself about the suffering of others as he himself has troubles.” And yet he imagines that he has faith, faith that there is a loving Providence who helps the sufferer, a Providence, who also uses men as his instruments. Possibly now the desired help comes. Again he quickly flares up with gratitude, basking in a soft conception of the loving Goodness of Providence. Now he thinks he has rightly grasped faith. Now it has been victorious in him over every doubt and every objection. Alas, that other sufferer has been completely forgotten. Suppose that there should be talk of objections to faith… then that other sufferer has an even more powerful objection. But the double-minded one is wholly blind to the fact that at the very moment when he believes faith to have conquered in him, he has, precisely by his action, refuted this conviction.

Suppose then, that there was another man, whose life, by devoted love, was an instrument in the hand of Providence, so that he helped many suffering ones, although the help he himself had wished continued to be denied him from year to year. Which of these two was in truth convinced that there is a loving Providence that cares for the suffering ones? …He whose life is sacrificing love shall he not trust that God is love?

from Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing (Ch. 7) 

---

Side note: if you are reading this K, this does not mean you’re not allowed to buy shoes. 😉

Another side note: as Dumbledore was aware, (new) socks are actually a great thing to give away, because it’s something people don’t always think of, like diapers. Also, I knew this before it was cool and there were commercials for it.

---

Anyway, here’s Give Good Gifts One To Another on Youtube and Spotify

…and here is an image of a protostellar jet  from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.

Here’s this year’s, if anyone’s interested.

Season of Giving

January 5th 

 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

Deuteronomy 15:11 (ESV)

For some time past it has appeared to me that the words “Ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good,” which the Lord spoke to His disciples, who were themselves very poor, imply that the children of God, as such, have power with God to bring temporal blessings upon poor saints or poor unbelievers, through the instrumentality of prayer. Accordingly I have been led to ask the Lord for means to assist poor saints; and at different times He has stirred up His children to intrust me with sums both large and small, for that especial object; or has, by some means or other, put money at my disposal, which I might so use. In like manner I had been asking again for means a few days since, to be able more extensively to assist the poor saints in communion with us, as just now many of them are not merely tried by the usual temporal difficulties arising from its being winter, but especially from the high price of bread. And now this evening the Lord has given me the answer to my prayer. When I came home from the meeting, I found a brother at my house who offered to give me 10l. a week, for twelve weeks, towards providing the poor saints with coals and needful articles of clothing, but chiefly with bread. [Accordingly… very many, especially poor widows, were greatly assisted, chiefly with flour and bread. This money just lasted till the price of bread was reduced from 9 1/2d. to 7 1/2d. Thus, for several weeks, about 150 quarterns of bread were distributed weekly, besides what was given in flour, coals, and clothes. I have mentioned this circumstance as an encouragement to those who either have little or nothing at all to give to poor persons, and who yet have a desire to give; and to those who have means, but whose means are not adequate to relieve all the demands made upon them. Had we more grace to plead the words of our Lord, above referred to, we should receive far more from Him to meet the necessities around us.]

Pause a few moments, dear reader! Not once does He forget us! Not once is our need only half supplied! Not once do His supplies come too late! Dear reader, if you have not the like experience of the Lords watchful care, Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!

We are children of the same family, and ought therefore to be helpers one of another.
How many helpers has the Christian in the conflict; yet all are strengthened by ONE who is ALWAYS for us!

from George Müller’s Narrative (Pt. 2, 1839)

---

This verse is, of course, preceded by a section that says ‘there should not be any poor among you,‘ but it’s nice how there’s a failsafe.  Tomorrow is St. Nicholas’s Feast and I was reminded that this season was traditionally an opportunity for charity (I know at least that the Feast of St. Stephen/Boxing Day was generally a time for helping the poor).

---

Here’s TSO’s For the Sake of Our Brother (which also sneaks in O Come All Ye Faithful) on Youtube and Spotify..

…and here is an image of a galactic collision with a bunch of glowy star-forming regions, naturally, from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic. 

Here’s this year’s, if anyone’s interested.

‘Not a thing for skies and stars’

December 3rd 

Faith also helps us to use the world as not abusing it. It is good at hard work, and at daily duty. It is not an angelic thing for skies and stars, but a human grace, at home in kitchens and workshops. It is at home at every kind of labour, and in every rank of life. It is a grace for every day, all the year round. Holy confidence in God is never out of work.

Spurgeon, in Around the Wicket Gate (To Those Who Have Believed) 

Then the Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre… he saw three men standing near him…

“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent.” he answered.

The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him. Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself: “After I have become shriveled up and my lord is old, will I have delight?”

But the Lord asked Abraham “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’ Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.”

Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid.

But He replied, “No, you did laugh.”

…Then the Lord said, “Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.”

Genesis 18:9-15,18-19 (HCSB)

---

Abraham laughed too, by the way. People always forget that. On that whole subject, the title of this post was almost “The really, really, really, long road to Bethlehem,” but  it won’t let me use italics up there.

Here is Tim Foust and The Hound + The Fox’s version of We Three Kings with some really kickass harmonizing on Youtube and Spotify. It’s one of my favorites (though I should probably add that my favorites are more determined by which are the most fun to belt out at the top of one’s lungs at any time in the two months preceding Christmas -yes I am one of those people- than any musical merit they may or may not have).

…and here is an Einstein Ring in the snappily-named galaxy cluster SDSSJ0146-0929 from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic. Here’s the link to this year’s, by the way, if you’re interested in being up-to-date.

The second Adam’s second coming

December 2nd

So the LORD God said to the serpent, “…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 3:14-15 (NIV)

We have tested and tasted too much, lover –
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child’s soul, we’ll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.

And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins.

O after Christmas we’ll have no need to go searching
For the difference that sets an old phrase burning –
We’ll hear it in the whispered argument of a churning
Or in the streets where the village boys are lurching.
And we’ll hear it among decent men too
Who barrow dung in gardens under trees,
Wherever life pours ordinary plenty.
Won’t we be rich, my love and I, and please
God we shall not ask for reason’s payment,
The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges
Nor analyse God’s breath in common statement.
We have thrown into the dust-bin the clay-minted wages
Of pleasure, knowledge and the conscious hour –
And Christ comes with a January flower.

Advent, Patrick Kavanagh

---

Not strictly a religious poem (in fact, I pretty sure some of those lines are actively anti-religious), but it’s always struck me, and I’m reminded to to pray for the person that first shared it with me every time I see it.

In keeping with our general Advent theme, here’s Andrew Peterson’s The Dark Before the Dawn on Youtube and Spotify.

…and here is an image of the Whirlpool Galaxy from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic, just because.