Ad te levavi animam meam
Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, and thereby the first day of the new liturgical year.
The antiphon of Holy Mass was taken from one of the Psalms of King David, and for some mysterious reason my cousin chose this very verse in Latin of the First Advent Sunday antiphon for the beautiful pocket oratory she made for me with her own hands and creativity.
For some mysterious reason, then, my pocket oratory will always remind me of the season of Advent – the season of waiting in expectation for the coming of the Messiah. The beginning of all time is in Him who came to us in the flesh “when the fulness of the time was come“ (Gal 4: 4), the “Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end“ (Apoc 22: 13).
“Ad te levavi animam meam.“
Antiphon of the Holy Mass of the First Sunday of Advent
“To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul.“
“Unto the end, a psalm for David. To thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. In thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on thee shall be confounded. Let all them be confounded that act unjust things without cause. Shew, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths. Direct me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou art God my Saviour; and on thee have I waited all the day long. Remember, O Lord, thy bowels of compassion; and thy mercies that are from the beginning of the world. The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember. According to thy mercy remember thou me: for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord. The Lord is sweet and righteous: therefore he will give a law to sinners in the way. He will guide the mild in judgment: he will teach the meek his ways. All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, to them that seek after his covenant and his testimonies. For thy name’s sake, O Lord, thou wilt pardon my sin: for it is great. Who is the man that feareth the Lord? He hath appointed him a law in the way he hath chosen. His soul shall dwell in good things: and his seed shall inherit the land. The Lord is a firmament to them that fear him: and his covenant shall be made manifest to them. My eyes are ever towards the Lord: for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare. Look thou upon me, and have mercy on me; for I am alone and poor. The troubles of my heart are multiplied: deliver me from my necessities. See my abjection and my labour; and forgive me all my sins. Consider my enemies for they are multiplied, and have hated me with an unjust hatred. Keep thou my soul, and deliver me: I shall not be ashamed, for I have hoped in thee. The innocent and the upright have adhered to me: because I have waited on thee. Deliver Israel, O God, from all his tribulations.“
Psalm 24 (25)
Pocket oratories are a tradition from the 19th century – little portable altars for anyone “on the move“. My cousin had the wonderful idea to revive it, to recycle an old bag of mine made of hemp fabric…
Advent is the Maranatha season, a time for getting ready for the unfathomable mysteries of Christmas and for the Messiah‘s Second Coming. Every Lauds prayer of the Divine Office at the break of dawn is a little Advent, too: The canticle of Zechariah, the prayer of the father of Saint John the Baptist who was the “voice crying in the wilderness“ to prepare the children of Israel for their Messiah, is recited.
“… and the crooked shall be made straight; and the rough ways plain; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.“
Luke 3: 5-6
Ecce Dominus veniat
“The Lord‘s advent is celebrated for four weeks to signify that his coming is fourfold: he came to us in the flesh, he comes into our hearts, he comes to us at death, and he will come to judge us. (…)
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 4
While the Lord‘s comings are four, the Church specially memorializes two of them, the one in the flesh and the one at the last Judgment, as is clear from the office of the season. Therefore the Advent fast is partly one of rejoicing, by reason of Christ‘s coming in the flesh, and partly one of anxiety at the thought of the Judgment. To bring this to our minds the Church sings some of her joyful chants because of the coming of mercy and rejoicing, and puts aside some others because the Judgment will be very strict and prompts anxiety.“
One of the traditional Advent hymns is Rorate caeli. This Gregorian chant cries out to God to send the Messiah – as Jerusalem lies desolate.
Refrain: Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One.
Rorate caeli translation
Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold the city of the Holy One is become a desert: Sion is become a desert: Jerusalem is desolate: the house of thy sanctification and of thy glory, where our fathers praised thee.
We have sinned and are become as one that is unclean: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have carried us away: thou hast hidden thy face from us, and hast crushed us in the hold of our iniquity.
Behold, O Lord, the affliction of thy people, and send forth Him Who is to come: send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from the Rock of the desert, to the mount of daughter Sion: that he may take away the yoke of our captivity.
Be comforted, be comforted, my people: thy salvation cometh quickly: why art thou consumed with grief: for sorrow hath estranged thee: I will save thee: fear not, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.
Strong and powerful is the song we sing at the end of every Sunday Mass during Advent, reminding us that He will come.
“Behold, the Lord comes and all his saints with him and on that day there will be great light, alleluia.“
Ecce Dominus veniat translation
This verse is taken from the last chapter of the book of the prophet Zechariah – the prophet whose name the father of Saint John the Baptist bore.
“Behold the days of the Lord shall come, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses shall be rifled, and the women shall be defiled: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the rest of the people shall not be taken away out of the city. Then the Lord shall go forth, and shallfight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem towards the east: and the mount of Olives shall be divided in the midst thereof to the east, and to the west with a very great opening, and half of the mountain shall be separated to the north, and half thereof to the south. And you shall flee to the valley of those mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to the next, and you shall flee as you fled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Juda: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him. And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall be no light, but cold and frost. And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night: and in the time of the evening there shall be light. And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them to the east sea, and half of them to the last sea: they shall be in summer and in winter. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one. And all the land shall return even to the desert, from the hill to Remmon to the south of Jerusalem: and she shall beexalted, and shall dwell in her own place, from the gate of Benjamin even to the place of the former gate, and even to the gate of the corners: and from the tower of Hananeel even to the king’s wine-presses. And people shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more an anathema: but Jerusalem shall sit secure. And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall strike all nations that have fought against Jerusalem: the flesh of every one shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. In that day there shall be a great tumult from the Lord among them: and a man shall take the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall be clasped upon his neighbour’s hand. And even Juda shall fight against Jerusalem: and the riches of all nations round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and garments in great abundance. And the destruction of the horse, and of the mule, and of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts, that shall be in those tents, shall be like this destruction. And all they that shall be left of all nations that came against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall come to pass, that he that shall not go up of the families of the land to Jerusalem, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts, there shall be no rain upon them. And if the family of Egypt go not up nor come: neither shall it be upon them, but there shall be destruction wherewith the Lord will strike all nations that will not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and this the sin of all nations, that will not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord: and the caldrons in the house of the Lord shall be as the phials before the altar. And every caldron in Jerusalem and Juda shall be sanctified to the Lord of hosts: and all that sacrifice shall come, and take of them, and shall seethe in them: and the merchant shall be no more in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day.“
Zechariah 14: 1-21
Saint John the Baptist, Saint Zechariah father of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Zechariah holy prophet, pray for us!