Hymn for Advent

The Lord is come! Dull hearts to wake,
He spake, as never man yet spake,
The Truth that makes His servant free,
The royal law of Liberty.
Though heaven and earth shall pass away,
His living word our spirits stay,
And from His treasures, new and old,
Th’ eternal mysteries unfold.

 The Lord is come! The world’s great stage
Begins a better, brighter age!
The old gives place unto the new;
The false retires before the true,
A progress that shall never tire,
A central heat of sacred fire,
A hope that soars beyond the tomb,
Reveal that Christ has truly come.

The Lord shall come! His still small voice
Bids every human heart rejoice,
By each closed door He stands and knocks;
Oh, turn for Him these rusted locks;
Clear from each home the dust of sin
That He may freely pass within;
Give ample verge—give ready room,
For He to be thy guest shall come.
 
The Lord shall come! In that great day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
May we in armour pure and bright
Flash back His own eternal light,
And join at last the white-robed band,
Whose spirits round their Saviour stand,
Where, when this weary world is o’er,
He comes with them to part no more.

– Excerpt, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–1881)

Dear Friends of Carmel,

We come again to another Advent and a new Liturgical Year.  As the secular world is busy about the hustle and bustle of “the holiday season,” (which has less and less to do with Christ each year) Our Holy Mother the Church holds our hearts in joyful expectation for the coming of our Redeemer.  We bring you these brief meditations in the hope that they will help immerse you in the great richness and hope of this “mini-lent” of Advent, that while we make our Christmas preparations of gifts and gatherings, we do not neglect the more important preparation of our souls to receive all of the grace that Christ’s coming means to us and to the world:

Through the ages, mankind has hungered for consolation and redemption.  During the four weeks of Advent, the yearning of the human race for a Redeemer is the theme of the Church.  “All you who thirst, come to the waters…,” cries Isaias, the master prophet of the universal God, whose central theme throughout his impassioned writings was the promise of a Savior for all the peoples of the earth.  Advent is the season of Isaias, the season of expectation: “The Lord shall come to save the nations… the Lord shall make heard the glory of His voice in the joy of your heart.”  .  .  .

The Gospel’s Judgment Day scene, depicting to us the gathered hosts of every race and people since the dawn of creation, urges us to begin this new year of worship with a sober accounting of how we have lived the Christian Faith and what we have done to share it with others.  We are one year farther away from our baptism and one year closer to judgment.  Perhaps more than we know, the “night is far advanced.”  So we look to the end of all our years, the end that explains the beginning.  The Final Judgment will reveal Christ’s complete victory.  We enter now a new cycle of life’s warfare and ask for help to face ourselves.  What are we doing to purify ourselves from past neglect of God’s grace and to better ourselves for a full use of this year of grace?  “Let us walk becomingly as in the day,” knowing that “redemption is at hand.”

Daily Missal of the Mystical Body (Maryknoll)

See our past Advent newsletters for more information about this beautiful season.  Please know that all of you will be in our prayers as we begin this new Liturgical Year and during the coming weeks of the season of Advent. 

In Christ and His Holy Virgin Mother,

Your Carmelite Sisters

*New Advent and Christmas Items*

A few Christmas items that were too late to make it into our last newsletter!