First Sunday in Advent

My format for this Advent season will be to list the readings for each Sunday, along with a hymn for the day, then refer to the previous Sunday's readings with meditations throughout the week. This was a blessing to me last year and I trust it will be again. If you find blessing from it, my joy will increase.

For the full texts, visit the Vanderbilt Divinity Library's Lectionary page for this Sunday's readings here.

Old Testament: Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm: Psalm 122:1-9
Epistle: Romans 13:11-14
New Testament: Matthew 24:36-44


Wake, Awake, For Night Is Flying
Text: Philipp Nicolai, 1599; tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1858
Commonly sung to WACHET AUF, Nicolai, 1599; harm. by J. S. Bach, 1731.

For more information and/or to listen to the tune, visit the Cyberhymnal.

Wake, awake, for night is flying;
The watchmen on the heights are crying:
Awake, Jerusalem, at last!
Midnight hears the welcome voices
And at the thrilling cry rejoices;
Come forth, ye virgins, night is past;
The Bridegroom comes, awake;
Your lamps with gladness take;
Alleluia! And for His marriage feast prepare
For ye must go and meet Him there.

Zion hears the watchmen singing,
And all her heart with joy is springing;
She wakes, she rises from her gloom;
For her Lord comes down all glorious,
The strong in grace, in truth victorious.
Her Star is risen, her Light is come.
Ah come, Thou blessèd One, God’s own belovèd Son:
Alleluia! We follow till the halls we see
Where Thou hast bid us sup with Thee.

Now let all the heavens adore Thee,
And saints and angels sing before Thee,
With harp and cymbal’s clearest tone;
Of one pearl each shining portal,
Where we are with the choir immortal
Of angels round Thy dazzling throne;
Nor eye hath seen, nor ear hath yet attained to hear
What there is ours, but we rejoice and sing to Thee
Our hymn of joy eternally.

Holy Week: Tuesday (Lent 36)

Ah, Holy Jesus

Text: Johann Heermann, 1630; tr. Robert Bridges, 1899
Tune: HERZLIEBSTER JESU, Johann Crueger, 1640

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
That we to judge thee have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.
’Twas I, Lord, Jesus, I it was denied thee!
I crucified thee.

Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered;
For our atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God intercedeth.

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation;
Thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
For my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
Think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving.

Lent: Day 34

Adoramus Te, Christe

Text: anonymous Latin
Various tunes

Adoramus te, Christe,
Et benedicimus tibi,
Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum,
Qui passus es pro nobis.
Domine, miserere nobis.

English translation:
We adore Thee, O Christ,
And we bless Thee,
Who by the holy cross hast redeemed the world,
Who hast suffered for us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

(Perhaps the most familiar settings of this text are one by Palestrina, and with a different translation, by Theodore DuBois in the final chorale of The Seven Last Words of Christ.