The Approach of Advent

I recently invited members of the Liturgy Committee to help in choosing a theme for Advent that might assist our community in their spiritual preparation for Christmas. I first invited their thoughts on how they normally experience Advent and what some of the challenges are in welcoming the season.

For students, the season of Advent usually falls at a time they are swamped with end-of-year studies and exams. For others, the conflicting messages of the secular world (and the commercialization of Christmas) plus the extra demands of the pre-Christmas rush, tended to cause a lot of stress. For some, this time of year can also be a lonely experience, perhaps due to the experience of feeling separated from loved ones during the season or even mourning a loved one who has died in the past year. Others see this time as a challenge to be more open to those most in need with a particular concern for the hungry and the homeless who need shelter from the cold. The one point, however, that most people agreed on was that Advent was a great opportunity to prepare spiritually for Christmas, even though it would be a struggle to concentrate for the reasons cited.

The committee also looked at themes which spoke to them from Advent scriptures. "Rejoice, the Lord is near", “hope”, and "light to all nations” were themes that resonated for many. The Lord Jesus is the One who has come to bring “light” to the world, to awaken our hearts and to renew us in our desire to be His “light” for others. In this, it was felt our Advent liturgies needed to reflect this insight.

In reviewing possible hymn selections for Advent which conveyed this theme of "light", the Liturgy Committee chose the beautiful hymn, "Creator of the Stars of Night". It speaks eloquently of how God comes to us in Christ Jesus and brings light to our world; all of creation has been transformed. We shall sing this great hymn throughout Advent. For your additional insight, I invite you to read more on the meaning of this hymn in the reflection which I have included below. May your experience of Advent bring you closer to God and may you find joy in its message.

CONDITOR alme siderum,
Aeterna lux credentium,
Christe Redemptor omnium,
Exaudi preces supplicum:

Qui condolens interitu
Mortis perire saeculum,
Salvasti mundum languidum,
Donans reis remedium,

Vergente mundi vespere,
Uti sponsus de thalamo,
Egressus honestissima
Virginis matris clausula.

Cujus forti potentiae
Genu curvantur omnia
Caelestia, terrestria,
Nutu fatentur subdita.

Te deprecamur, hagie,
Venture judex saeculi,
Conserva nos in tempore
Hostis a telo perfidi.

CREATOR of the stars of night,
Your people's everlasting light,
O Christ, Redeemer of us all,
We pray you hear us when we call.

In sorrow that the ancient curse
Should doom to death a universe,
You came, 0 Savior, to set free
Your own in glorious liberty.

Come, Sun and Savior, to embrace
Our gloomy world, its weary race,
As groom to bride, as bride to groom:
The wedding chamber, Mary's womb.

At your great Name, 0 Jesus, now
All knees must bend, all hearts must bow;
All things on earth with one accord,
Like those in heav'n, shall call you Lord.

Come in your holy might, we pray,
Redeem us for eternal day;
Defend us while we dwell below,
From all assaults of our dread foe.

For many, Advent would not be Advent if introduced by any other hymn. It is well-nigh impossible for even the best of poets to find a formula that really corresponds to the first line of the Latin text. The Latin "sidus" ["siderum"] means more than "star." It includes the stars, of course, but also sun and moon and planets and all the heavenly constellations and comets and meteors. These are the cosmic elements that will appear in later stanzas of the hymn. For the ancients, these mysterious heavenly bodies that moved about and that had their cycles of waxing and waning and that in some unfathomable way could affect the course of human destiny-these heavenly bodies were perhaps living beings.

The opening line of this Advent hymn should make us think of the great array of all the powerful cosmic bodies that figure in those eschatological texts of scripture where the whole of the created universe responds to the presence of its God. The point of reference is not some lovely nightfall scene studded with gently glimmering stars, but rather that Great Day when "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken" (Matthew 24:29). Indeed, this Advent hymn, if we really look at it, is something of a "Dies irae" in a less strident mode.

In stanza three, the world's evening draws to a close. We recognize in the last three lines of this stanza the allusion to verse six of Psalm 19, the verse that occurs so frequently in the Christmastide cycle: "And he, as a bridegroom coming forth from the bridal chamber, rejoices as a giant to run his course." So just when the world seems doomed to certain extinction, the Sun comes forth in a blaze of light and begins its paschal journey across the whole of human life and experience. This imagery is especially appropriate towards the beginning of December and the first Sunday of Advent, when nights are growing progressively longer and longer, until, upon the arrival of the winter solstice just before Christmas, the inexorable onslaught of darkness is reversed with the birth of Christ, the Sun of Justice, who now begins to run his course over the whole of our existence.--Chrysogonous Waddell (from “An Advent Sourcebook”, edited by Thomas J. O’Gorman, Liturgy Trining Press, 1988, pp. 1-3)