Advent
Prose
Fr.
Tony’s Midweek Message
December
11, 2019
The Advent Prose is a striking catena
of passages from the Hebrew Scriptures expressing the hopes of the prophets for
Yahweh's salvation at the end of time, when all would be set right. It traditionally served in the Western Church
as responsory for votive masses honoring the Blessed Virgin during Advent and
was the appointed Introit for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Mary Sunday. It
is now commonly used in Anglican/Episcopal churches for introits throughout
Advent. Here is my translation.
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Latin
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English
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Roráte caéli désuper,
et núbes plúant jústum. |
Distill dew, O heavens, from
above,
and let the clouds rain down
the Righteous One:
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Ne irascáris Dómine,
ne ultra memíneris iniquitátis: ecce cívitas Sáncti fácta est desérta: Síon desérta fácta est: Jerúsalem desoláta est: dómus sanctificatiónis túæ et glóriæ túæ, ubi laudavérunt te pátres nóstri. |
Be not angry, Lord,
Neither remember our wrongs anymore: See the holy city made a wilderness, Zion, a desert. Jerusalem, abandoned: Your house, once holy and bright, Where our forebears once praised you. |
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Peccávimus, et fácti súmus tamquam
immúndus nos,
et cecídimus quasi fólium univérsi: et iniquitátes nóstræ quasi véntus abstulérunt nos: abscondísti faciem túam a nóbis, et allisísti nos in mánu iniquitátis nóstræ. |
We have sinned, and have become
like something loathsome;
We all have fallen like leaves in the autumn: Our wrongs have swept us away, like the wind; you have hidden your face from us: you have bound us in the hand of our wrongs. |
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Víde Dómine afflictiónem pópuli
túi,
et mítte quem missúrus es: emítte Agnum dominatórem térræ, de Pétra desérti ad móntem fíliæ Síon: ut áuferat ípse júgum captivitátis nóstræ. |
See, Lord, how your people
suffers.
Send the One who is to come. Send forth the Lamb—ruler of the earth from rocky Petra of the desert to
the mount of daughter Zion—
that He himself may bear away the yoke that has imprisoned us. |
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Consolámini, consolámini, pópule
méus:
cito véniet sálus túa: quare mæróre consúmeris, quia innovávit te dólor? Salvábo te, nóli timére, égo enim sum Dóminus Déus túus, Sánctus Israël, Redémptor túus. |
Take comfort, take comfort, my
people,
Your salvation comes swiftly: Why waste away in sorrow Because pain has come over you anew? I will save you; cease your fear. For it is I, the Lord your God, Israel’s Holy One,
Who purchases your freedom.
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J. Brahms, 2 Motets, Op. 74: No. 2. O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf, a metrical rendition in German of the Advent prose texts
Desolation,
desert dryness, sorrow, wasting away, and the burden of wrongdoing—all this is
what the Righteous One—coming gently like dew or thunderously like rain—will water,
heal, and cleanse. “Why waste away in
sorrow” indeed!
Grace
and Peace.
Fr.
Tony+
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