Remembering the Holy Innocents

Massacre of the Holy Innocents
Matteo di Giovanni, 1488

Christmastide is not all sweetness and light.  Later in his life, Jesus would say "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34 - NIV).  For humanity is all too fond of protecting its turf, and the powerful take offense at the stumbling block that is the teaching of Jesus, the Christ.

December 28 marked the remembrance of the massacre of innocent babies in Bethlehem and area, by Herod, "The Great", in an attempt to protect his "power" over the region from the reported birth of one referred to as the King of the Jews.

Herod's actions were not new, nor did that behaviour stop with him -- as colonial history in Canada, involving our own Anglican church, makes only too clear.  

And today, "Herod" exists on the southern border of the United States, and in far too many other places around the globe.

So...for the Holy Innocents, and for all of us...another poem from Malcolm Guite:


Refugee

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,

Or cosy in a crib beside the font,

But he is with a million displaced people

On the long road of weariness and want.

For even as we sing our final carol

His family is up and on that road,

Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,

Glancing behind and shouldering their load.

Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower

Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,

The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,

And death squads spread their curse across the world.

But every Herod dies, and comes alone

To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012.

To listen to the poet read his sonnet aloud, click HERE.

Nativity 2019
Photo: Claremont United Methodist Church
Claremont, California

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part VII

I let a day slide between my last post and this one...because this final O Antiphon has us quivering on the threshold, the Eve of Christmas, when Emmanuel shall come to us.  In his poem reflecting on this antiphon, Anglican priest and poet Malcolm Guite includes all of the names we have prayed this last week of Advent.


O Emmanuel*

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us

O long-sought With-ness for a world without,

O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.

Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name

Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,

O quickened little wick so tightly curled,

Be folded with us into time and place,

Unfold for us the mystery of grace

And make a womb of all this wounded world.

O heart of heaven beating in the earth,

O tiny hope within our hopelessness

Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,

To touch a dying world with new-made hands

And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012.

Once again, to hear the antiphon chanted in English and Latin, book-ending the poet's reading his sonnet aloud, click HERE.

*Scriptural source: Isaiah 7:14.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

- a 12th Century Latin hymn,

Sung here in English (choir unidentified)

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part VI

O Rex Gentium 

In yesterday's post I mentioned that the O Antiphons are intended to be prayers.  In researching today's post, I came upon an article that speaks to a way to pray the Antiphons.  Click THIS LINK to read on!  And now the sonnet inspired by the antiphon...


O Rex Gentium*

O King of our desire whom we despise,
King of the nations never on the throne,
Unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone,
Rejected joiner, making many one,
You have no form or beauty for our eyes,
A King who comes to give away his crown,
A King within our rags of flesh and bone.
We pierce the flesh that pierces our disguise,
For we ourselves are found in you alone.
Come to us now and find in us your throne,
O King within the child within the clay,
O hidden King who shapes us in the play
Of all creation. Shape us for the day
Your coming Kingdom comes into its own.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

To hear the antiphon chanted in English and Latin, as well as the sonnet read aloud by the poet, click HERE.

*Scriptural sources: Isaiah 28:16; Ephesians 2:14.

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part V

The Tester Above the Shinre of St. Cuthbert
in Durham Cathedral.
Designed by Sir Ninian Comper
Source: Liturgical Arts Journal

While the O Antiphons are often chanted, they should not be mistaken for "songs".  Rather, they are an Advent prayer tradition.  In fact, these particular antiphons -- derived from the Book of Isaiah (as has been mentioned in the last several posts) -- are prayers of/to/about the seven names, or attributes, for the expected Messiah, declared by the prophet long before the given name of Jesus was known.

So far this week we have reflected and prayed on these names: Wisdom, Sacred Lord, Root of Jesse, and Key of David.  Today...Oriens or 'Radiant Dawn' -- the One who brings light to those who dwell in darkness:

O Oriens*

First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced

The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.

Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace

In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
“Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream

For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking."

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

To hear the Antiphon chanted and the sonnet read aloud by the poet, click HERE.

*Scriptural sources: Isaiah 9:2; 42: 6-7; John 1:5.

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part IV

O Clavis David (O Key of David)

The O Antiphon for today is again based on the words from Isaiah, referring to David, and to the Messiah to come, who would descend from David and be the Key to the Kingdom of God (see also Revelations 3:7-12).

I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. -- Isaiah 22:22

...to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. -- Isaiah 44:7

And now the sonnet written by priest and poet Malcolm Guite:

O Clavis

Even in the darkness where I sit

And huddle in the midst of misery

I can remember freedom, but forget

That every lock must answer to a key,

That each dark clasp, sharp and intricate,

Must find a counter-clasp to meet its guard,

Particular, exact and intimate,

The clutch and catch that meshes with its ward.

I cry out for the key I threw away

That turned and over turned with certain touch

And with the lovely lifting of a latch

Opened my darkness to the light of day.

O come again, come quickly, set me free

Cut to the quick to fit, the master key.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

Once again, to hear the Antiphon chanted in English, the poem read by the poet, and the Antiphon chanted again in Latin, click HERE.

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part III

O Radix Jesse

This O Antiphon reflects on words from the prophet Isaiah about a shoot coming up from "the root of Jesse" (who was the father of David)...and Jesus is that 'shoot' who was (as the carol goes) "born of David's line".  Here is priest and poet Malcolm Guite's sonnet, reflecting on this Antiphon:


O Radix*

All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,

Rose from a root invisible to all.

We knew the virtues once of every weed,

But, severed from the roots of ritual,

We surf the surface of a wide-screen world

And find no virtue in the virtual.

We shrivel on the edges of a wood

Whose heart we once inhabited in love,

Now we have need of you, forgotten Root

The stock and stem of every living thing

Whom once we worshiped in the sacred grove,

For now is winter, now is withering

Unless we let you root us deep within,

Under the ground of being, graft us in.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

To hear the poet read this aloud, click HERE.  Note that this reading is preceded by a chanting of the Antiphon in English and followed by a chanting of it again -- in Latin.

*Scriptural sources: Isaiah 11:10 and 45:14; Romans 15:12.

A Shoot from the Stump of Jesse
(C) M. Blank, 2019

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons - Part II

This O Antiphon wasn't one of the selections for our December 15th carol service so here it is for your reflection:

O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms. (cf Exodus 3; Micah 5:2; and Matthew 2:6)

And the sonnet that priest and poet, Malcolm Guite, has written inspired by this antiphon, which he says "...touches on the title of God himself, who was called 'Adonai', meaning 'Lord', in the Old Testament, because his sacred name, the four letters known as 'The Tetragramaton', could not be uttered by unworthy human beings without blasphemy.":

O Adonai

Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue,

Unseeable, you gave yourself away,

The Adonai, the Tetragramaton

Grew by a wayside in the light of day.

O you who dared to be a tribal God,

To own a language, people and a place,

Who chose to be exploited and betrayed,

If so you might be met with face to face,

Come to us here, who would not find you there,

Who chose to know the skin and not the pith,

Who heard no more than thunder in the air,

Who marked the mere events and not the myth.

Touch the bare branches of our unbelief

And blaze again like fire in every leaf.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012.

To hear the poet read the sonnet aloud, click HERE.

Poetry for the Last Week of Advent: The O Antiphons Part I

Holy Wisdom - icon, 1670s
Source: The Church Times

O Sapientia*

I cannot think unless I have been thought,

Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken.

I cannot teach except as I am taught,

Or break the bread except as I am broken.

O Mind behind the mind through which I seek,

O Light within the light by which I see,

O Word beneath the words with which I speak,

O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me,

O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me,

O Memory of time, reminding me,

My Ground of Being, always grounding me,

My Maker’s Bounding Line, defining me,

Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring,

Come to me now, disguised as everything.

-- Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons, Canterbury Press, 2012

To hear the poet read his sonnet aloud, click HERE. 

*Scriptural source: Ecclesiastes 24: 3; Wisdom 8: 1 (the Apocrypha)

Prayer in Poetry for Advent Week III

The 'O' Antiphons

Photo Credit: Thinking Faith

At today's Carol Eucharist, Rev. Robert read from four of the seven "O" Antiphons in response to readings.  According to Wikipedia...

The O Antiphons, also known as The great Os are Magnificat antiphons used at Vespers of the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. 

As illustrated above, there are seven of them -- read each evening from December 17 through December 23 -- the last seven evenings in Advent:  O Sapientia (O Wisdom): O Adonai; O Radix; O Clavis; O Oriens; O Rex Gentium; and O Emmanuel.

The Anglican priest and poet, Malcolm Guite -- whose work is quoted so often on these blog pages -- includes a sonnet for each Antiphon in his book, Sounding the Seasons (Canterbury Press, London, UK, 2012).  Stay tuned to this weblog for a posting of each one of these -- with an audio link -- beginning on Tuesday, December 17.

Wishing you a blessed Advent...

The Parish of St. Cyprian, Lacombe, Alberta

P.S. Our Parish now has a website via the Diocese of Calgary -- check out the link in the side-bar!  😊

"Reclaiming Advent": A Podcast

From St. Benedict's Table, an Anglican congregation in Winnipeg, MB...a conversation between Rev. Jamie Howison and singer-song-writer, Steve Bell...

Listen HERE.

Music for Advent -- Week 2

Are we prepared?

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him--

the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding.

the Spirit of counsel and of power.

the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD --

and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

-- Isaiah 11: 1-3a (NIV)

*************

In those days, John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea

and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

"I baptize you with water for repentance.  But after me will come one

who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

-- Matthew 3: 1-2, 11 (NIV)

The Feast of St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas
Artist: Jaroslav Cermak (1831 - 1878)
Source: Wikimedia Commons

If you subscribe to the Anglican Journal, you may have seen the article about Bishop Nicholas of Myra -- who we know today as St. Nicholas, the person on whom the legend of Santa Claus is based.

He was born on or about March 15, 270 CE and died December 6, 343 CE; thus his Feast or Commemoration Day is December 6.  He was known for many miracles, and for his particular generosity to the poor, the oppressed and children -- whose lives were often impoverished and brutal in those days of the Roman Empire.  As Steve Bell opines on his reflection on Nicholas (from his Pilgrim Year Series book, Advent),

"[Nicholas] clearly saw the link between chronic poverty and slavery and acted selflessly to interrupt the devastating consequences of deprivation...

During Advent, those of us who claim the Christian story as our own...may want to redouble our efforts on behalf of the disenfranchised and vulnerable poor."

Let's be God's heart, hands and feet here on earth -- and go forth to love and serve...with kindness.

 

Poetry for Advent - Week 1

Are we prepared?


Advent Sunday - by Christina Rosetti

BEHOLD, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out

With lighted lamps and garlands round about

To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.

It may be at the midnight, black as pitch,

Earth shall cast up her poor, cast up her rich.

It may be at the crowing of the cock

Earth shall upheave her depth, uproot her rock.

For lo, the Bridegroom fetcheth home the Bride:

His Hands are Hands she knows, she knows His Side.

Like pure Rebekah at the appointed place,

Veiled, she unveils her face to meet His Face.

Like great Queen Esther in her triumphing,

She triumphs in the Presence of her King.

His Eyes are as a Dove’s, and she’s Dove-eyed;

He knows His lovely mirror, sister, Bride.

He speaks with Dove-voice of exceeding love,

And she with love-voice of an answering Dove.

Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go we out

With lamps ablaze and garlands round about

To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.

To hear this read aloud by poet, priest and author, Malcolm Guite,  CLICK HERE