Friday 17 December
O Sapientia
O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.
(cf. Ecclesiasticus 24.3; Wisdom 8.1)
Arvo Pärt. Seiben Magnificat-Antiphonen (1988 / 1991). Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, dir Tönu Kaljuste. 1. "O Weisheit, hervorgegangen aus dem Munde des Höchsten, die Welt umspannst du von einem Ende zum andern, in Kraft und Milde ordnest du alles: O komm und offenbare uns den Weg der Weisheit und der Einsicht."
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From today, the Advent focus turns directly to the story of the birth of the Christ child, and so do the pictures in this calendar, beginning with the Annunciation. In 2002 The Institute for Bible Translation published a Georgian edition of Stories about Jesus Christ, a children’s book based on the four New Testament Gospels. They commissioned Georgian artist David Popiashvili, who studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, to create thirty-one illustrations for it. People responded so well to Popiashvili’s images that IBT decided to create a digital version of the book that includes Russian and English translations as well as the original Georgian.
Coming to the Christ child isn’t always simple. It just is the case that people come by roundabout routes, with complex histories, sin and muddle and false perceptions and wrong starts. It’s no good saying to them, ‘You must become simple and wholehearted’, as if this could be done just by wishing it. The real question is, ‘Can you take all your complicated history with you on a journey towards the manger? Can you at least refuse to settle down in the hall of mirrors, and go on asking where truth really lies? Can you stop hanging on to the complex and the devious for their own sake, as a theatre for your skills, and recognize where the map of the heavens points?' . . .
So: don’t deny the tangle and the talents, the varied web of what has made you who you are. Every step is part of the journey; on this journey, even the false starts are part of the journey, experience that moves you on towards truth. It won’t do to think of Christianity as a faith that demands of you an embarrassed pretence of a simplicity that has no connection with reality; isn’t this what so often leads people not to take Christianity seriously? As though you had to leave the full range of human experience outside the door (the stable door), while the innocent alone entered Without challenge?
— Rowan Williams, "The Kingdom of the Simple," Christmas Day Broadcast 2002. In Choose Life. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, pp. 7,8.
Genesis 49:2, 8-10
Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob;
listen to Israel your father.
‘Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s whelp;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and the obedience of the peoples is his.
Psalm 72.1-7
Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.
May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness.
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.
May he live while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth.
In his days may righteousness flourish
and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
Matthew 1:1-17
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Good is the Flesh
Brian Wren
Good is the flesh that the Word has become,
good is the birthing, the milk in the breast,
good is the feeding, caressing and rest,
good is the body for knowing the world,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the body for knowing the world,
sensing the sunlight, the tug of the ground,
feeling, perceiving, within and around,
good is the body, from cradle to grave,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the body, from cradle to grave,
growing and ageing, arousing, impaired,
happy in clothing, or lovingly bared,
good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
Good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
longing in all, as in Jesus, to dwell,
glad of embracing, and tasting, and smell,
good is the body, for good and for God,
Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
— From Good is the Flesh: Body, Soul, and Christian Faith, edited by Jean Denton. Morehouse, 2005.
Holy God,
your prophets call us to look forward to the dawn of a new day;
may we who witness the promised springtime
prepare the way for the coming Sun of Justice, Jesus your Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever. Amen.
— Bosco Peters
O felice, O chiara note. Coro della Società degli Alpinisti Tridentini), December, 2018, dir. Renoto Dionisi.
O felice, o chiara notte
Di quel lume sei feconda
Ma l'è l'aurora, l'è l'aurora più gioconda,
Più ridente del mattin.
Su pastori e non dormite
Che l'è lora di vegliar
Ma quelle voci, quelle voci son partite
Fanno presto a ritornar.
Su pastori alla capanna
Su venite e non tardate
Le vostre agnelle, vostre agnelle abbandonate
Dio dall'alto veglierà.
O happy, O clear night
You are fruitful of that light
But it is the dawn, it is the most joyful dawn,
More laughing than the morning.
On shepherds and do not sleep
That it is time to stay awake
But those voices, those voices are gone
They are quick to return.
On shepherds at the hut
Come on and do not delay
Your lambs, your abandoned lambs
God from on high will keep watch.
May the Lord, when he comes, find us watching and waiting. Amen.