Music
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
- Words are a 12th century hymn, translated into English by John M. Neale (1851)
- The hymn tune is VENI EMMANUEL, based on plainsong phrases; harmonization by Thomas Helmore (1854)
- Performed by Enya (first stanza only; sung once in English and once in Latin)
Text appears in the video
Meditation
Enya doesn't sing this stanza, but I add it here as it seems meaningful at the close of what for most of us has been a hard year:
O come thou Dayspring from on high
And cheer us by thy drawing nigh
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight
Rejoice, rejoice, O Israel
To you shall come Emmanuel
The theme of the First Sunday of Advent is HOPE. German theologian Eberhard Arnold wrote:
Advent hope is a certainty of faith that shows itself in action through mutual responsibility for the whole of life. The church of Christ is the fellowship of this hope. It believes so unreservedly that it is convinced that the divine must conquer the demonic, that love must conquer hate, that the all-embracing must conquer the isolated. Certainty tolerates no limitation. God embraces everything. When we trust in him for the future, we trust in him for the present. When we have faith in him, our faith holds true for everything that touches our lives.
And Paul wrote to the Romans:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)
The Collect for the First Sunday of Advent:
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now and 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 life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.
