Advent is rising in the south of Iowa this morning with fog and rain, the tatters of last Sunday's blanket of snow.
So the graphic presentation that accompanies this New York Polyphony performance of Veni Redemptor gentium (arranged by Andrew Smith; images by Robert Greene) seems appropriate.
The text is attributed to St. Ambrose (d, 397), among the namesakes of my maternal grandfather.
Martin Luther loved it, too, and translated it as the chorale, Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland. J.S. Bach, among other Baroque composers, wrote settings for it.
Translated into English, by among others J.M. Neale, it's become a staple in liturgical churches for this, the first Sunday in Advent:
Come, Thou Redeemer of the earth,
And manifest Thy virgin birth:
Let every age adoring fall;
Such birth befits the God of all.
Sometimes it seems as if we've turned the season now upon us into a mountain to be climbed stressfully toward the Christmas pinnacle, ticking off tasks to be completed as we go. But that's not what was intended, nor the way it should be.
One antidote is to move thoughtfully through Advent, not rushing the season, commencing here:
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