Luke 2:22-40 Throughout the liturgical year there are some hymns which seem to draw together all that I hold dear in biblical imagery and incarnational theology. Hail to the Lord who Comes is one of those hymns. This hymn helps me make an immediate connection between the Gospel scene of the presentation and my own …
Category Archives: Monastic
Mary, Mother of God
Numbers 6:22-27Luke 2:16-21In the Desert Tradition the men and women who fled to the physical margins of society developed a very particular relationship with Scripture and particularly with Biblical characters. They were judged by the Master to have understood the Scriptures in so far as they embodied the virtues of the Biblical characters. This teaching …
Christ is Here
Christ is here, Emmanuel!Majesty so mild:Wisdom dwells with grace and truth,Hidden in this child. Here is God’s eternal Son,Now to us made known,By the Spirit’s love conceived,Mary’s flesh his own. Born of God’s creative will,Christ is Light from Light,Come to rescue Adam’s sons,Waiting in the night. Father, Son and Spirit blest:Heav’n their glory sings,While the …
Christmas Eve
CHRISTMAS EVE 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a,16Luke 1:67-79 On this last day of Advent the Church lays before us a pivotal text in the Old Testament, 2 Sam 7. Walter Brueggemann describes it as ‘the taproot of the Messianic idea in Israel’. After successfully bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and putting it …
O Rex Gentium
O King of all the nations,the only joy of every human heart;O keystone of the mighty arch of man,come and save the creatureyou fashioned out of dust. 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 …
23rd December
Malachi 3:1-4,23-24Luke 1:57-66 ‘And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant who you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.’ In today’s reading from the prophet Malachi there are two words which always stand out for me: ‘seeking’ and ‘longing’. These …
22nd December
1 Samuel 1:24-28Luke 1:46-56 I don’t think I could imagine a more poignant scene if I tried than that of Hannah leaving her child Samuel in the Temple at Shiloh. Everything about the story raises a huge question. Hannah had longed for a child and saw the birth of Samuel as the greatest blessing. And …
O Oriens
Song of Songs 2:8-14Luke 1:39-45 O Radiant Dawn,splendour of eternal light,sun of justice;come, shine on thosewho dwell in darknessand the shadow of death. O Oriens First light and then first lines along the eastTo touch and brush a sheen of light on waterAs though behind the sky itself they tracedThe shift and shimmer of another …
Fourth Sunday of Advent (A)
Isaiah 7:10-14Matthew 1:18-24 ‘This is how Jesus CHRIST came to be born.’ Matthew begins his gospel with a lengthy genealogy which requires great concentration, whether you are listening to it or reading it aloud. It’s not unlike having a complicated story plot explained or trying to work out how you are related to a distant …
O Clavis David
Isaiah 7:10-14Luke 1:26-38 O Key of DavidO royal power of Israelcontrolling at your willthe gate of Heaven:Come, break down the prison wallsof death for those who dwell in darknessand lead your captive people into freedom. O Clavis David Even in the darkness where I sitAnd huddle in the midst of miseryI can remember freedom, but …