Artist: Karl NordströmIt is good and true to think that every ray of the sun touching the earth has the sun at the other end of it. Just so, every bit of love upon God’s earth has God at the other end of it.
Artist: Jan VermeerThis is my prayer, too. This is my assurance, too, as well.God’s love is a gift that can make you forget yourself at times. The Scottish writer George MacDonald said, “It is the heart that is not yet sure of its God that is afraid to laugh in his presence.” God loves us as we are right now! That’s one of the things I’m most grateful for. I love the freedom to be myself in God. I pray that a year from now, five years from now, I will be a godlier woman, but I know God won’t love me any more than he does right this minute.
-- Sheila Walsh
Artist: Guido ReniA king like Herod had soldiers to help keep the peace, to help stop criminals from making victims of the law-abiding citizens. But Herod also used those same soldiers to murder the babies of Bethlehem. On the cross, Jesus would reveal the flaw to our entire social order: you simply cannot use violent means to stop violence, if we ever want the violence to ultimately come to an end. So, instead, Jesus suffered the violence to make an example of it, that we might one day see the light.-- from a sermon by Paul J. Nuechterlein
From The Book of DimmaBeloved apostle of Christ our God,
hasten to deliver a defenseless people.
He who allowed you to recline on His breast,
receives you as you bow before Him.
Implore Him, John the Theologian,
to dispel heathen persistence
and to grant us peace and mercy.
Artist: Karl Dussault He gives snow like wool; *Ah. So very appropriate for Tulsa this weekend!
he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
He scatters his hail like bread crumbs; *
who can stand against his cold?
He sends forth his word and melts them; *
he blows with his wind, and the waters flow.
From the Nuremberg Chronicles, 1493"He prayed for them that did the wrong. Who follows in his train?"
The very interesting wind instrument is the cornetto.
This is wonderful music to trim the tree by or just sit around with cider or mulled wine and a lot of candles lit while relishing the day!
O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the
new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!
Artist: Johansen Viggo "There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew: "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round--apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that--as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"
-- Charles Dickens, from A Christmas Carol
Artist: Mikhail NesterovMary doesn't understand what is going on; the archangel's reply to her question, "How shall this be?" is a mystery. Gabriel only assures Mary that God will overshadow her in the Holy Spirit. But Mary senses the kind of terror that comes from being in God's presence (rather than the horror that comes from being in the presence of evil). She surrenders her assured future as the wife of a carpenter named Joseph to play the unknowable part God wills for her as Mother of the Savior.
How many times must we hear this basic Gospel truth to learn it? We have been waiting for so long for God in our lives. We have sung many hymns praying for the advent of God in our lives. But have we yet learned that the word of God addressed to Mary through the Archangel Gabriel, is the same word God addresses to us: "Hail favored one, the Lord is with you." How many of us understand that God is waiting for us to say "Let it be to me according to your word," just as God waited for Mary to say it?-- The Reverend Marie Phillips*
Artist: Georges de La TourDear God, the troubles of our world have left many of us speechless. We don’t know how, in the numbness around jobs lost, illnesses we don’t have the resources to cure, a planet imperiled by the accumulated effects of our greed, and the seemingly endless presence of war and violence, to say our prayers. We are lighting candles, though – in our Advent wreaths, quietly, in side chapels of our churches, in our rooms where no one else but You can see. The candle flame is our prayer, wordless but filled with meaning, with petition, hope, and faith. And the candle flame is your answer to our prayer. You lighten our darkness, O Lord. Amen.
Thomas, ApostleWhat do we do when something to which we have totally committed ourselves is destroyed before our very eyes? What do we do when powerful and faceless institutions suddenly crush someone to whom we have given total loyalty? And what do we do when our immediate reaction in the actual moment of crisis is to run and hide, for fear of the madding crowds? Such were the questions of most of the disciples, including Thomas, who had supported and followed Jesus of Nazareth for the better part of three years.
The doubting Thomas within each of us must be touched. We are asked to respond to the wounds first within ourselves then in others. Even in our weakness, we are urged to breathe forth the Spirit so that the wounds may be healed and our fears overcome. With Thomas we will believe, when our trembling hand finally and hesitantly reaches out to the Lord in the community of faith. The words addressed to Thomas were given to us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed!”
Artist: Meister von MeßkirchWhen they meet and Elizabeth recognizes in Mary something beyond the ordinary, something revealed to her through the Holy Spirit, she calls Mary "the mother of my Lord." She blesses Mary for believing in God's promises, in the fulfillment of "what was spoken to her by the Lord." It is a time of ecstasy for both of them....They are two related women who are filled with the Holy Spirit and are delighted at the reality of the children in their wombs. In her hymn of praise to God, Mary focuses on what matters to her, a poor young woman who is obedient to God and who recognizes her humble origins. She senses that in her, in the promise of her child, in the words of God's messenger, something good is happening--not only to her but to other human beings.* It is the humble who are being raised.
* It is those who feel awe before God their maker that are shown mercy.
* The powerful are brought down.
* The lowly are lifted up.
* And the hungry are fed.- from a sermon by Katerina Whitley
The Tree of JesseO Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;
before you kings will shut their mouths,
to you the nations will make their prayer:
Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.
Moses iconO Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,
who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush
and gave him the law on Sinai:
Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.
We look forward to the antiphons in their own right each year, because their appearance on the calendar means that we can quicken our own hopes in anticipation of the Saviour's birth. Their arrival is much like seeing a familiar highway exit still just a little way away from home, or a train stop not far from one's intended destination. They comfort, heighten, calm and focus, but they are also direct and demanding.
This is the arrangement by Zoltán Kodály
O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,Let us remember that the Church from ancient times has seen Christ as the incarnation of Wisdom herself. I recommend taking a look at The Wisdom of Solomon 8:1.
reaching from one end to the other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.
