Dear friends
The season of Advent is a time for preparation, with expectant hearts, for the coming of Christ, the light of the world at Christmas.
As we hear in the magnificent Cathedral Advent Procession, Christ comes to us at Christmas in the Child of Bethlehem, and at all times, in the gift of his Spirit, in the bread of the Eucharist and in the joy of human lives that are shared. Advent is a season for preparing to open our hearts and lives to the coming of Christ in a new way, this Christmas.
Advent is also a season for singing the most beautiful and compelling hymns. One of my favourites is quite difficult for the cathedral acoustic because it needs to be sung briskly and there are a lot of words to fit in! The hymn is by the children’s author and poet, Eleanor Farjeon (1881 – 1965) who also wrote the lovely ‘Morning has broken’. Her Advent hymn ’People look East’ set to a traditional French Carol, captures the pressing urgency and joy of Christ’s coming, the Lord who is ‘on his way’.
People look East. The time is near of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able, trim the hearth and set the table…’
Farjeon focusses on the normal and homely activity of getting the house ready for Christmas whilst on a global and cosmic level the earth gets ready for springtime and the stars and planets keep watch for a star. She conveys a wonderful paradox, that as ‘every peak and valley’ hums with the news that the Lord of creation is coming, Christ is also on his way to come to each of us, individually, within the fabric of our ordinary lives.
‘People, look East and sing to-day; Love, the Guest, is on the way.’
The birth of Christ changes everything. Yet, the Lord of all Creation comes so quietly and so humbly into the world asking to be our guest. Christ asks us to welcome him again into our hearts and lives, in all the ordinary as well as extraordinary circumstances of our lives.
With newly open ‘Advent’ eyes and hearts, perhaps as we read and watch reports of a world in which so many live under the shadow of death, in which conflict, war and climate emergency blight the lives of so many, we’ll see that each and every one of us is precious to God, that everyone matters. The light of the world is coming to help us to see more clearly the ways that lead to compassion, justice and peace.
May God bless you richly in this season of Advent and Christmas. May we all be ready to welcome Christ our guest and offer room in our hearts and lives, experiencing the true joy of Christ’s Nativity.
I do hope that you have a holy and blessed Advent and a joyful Christmas.
I’ll close with a prayer:
God of all hope and joy,
In these days of Advent open our hearts to you,
that your Son Jesus Christ as his coming
may find in us a dwelling prepared for himself;
that heaven and nature may sing in joyful harmony
and the whole world know justice and peace,
in the name of your Son,
our Saviour, Jesus Christ,
Amen.
Please take care of yourself and others.
With blessings and best wishes,
The Very Revd Catherine Ogle
Dean of Winchester