No tree yet please, we're Catholic

A new liturgical year has begun; it is now Advent. The colours and music on this blog reflect the change as we prepare for our celebration of the coming into our nature the God-man; the Second Person of the Holy Trinity made incarnate in the womb of the most perfect creature made by God, that of Mary of Nazareth, blessed and forever a virgin.

In my neighbourhood and as I have found out on Facebook a new season has also begun. The plastic Santa is lit across the street, the house at the corner has had lights up and candy canes and wreaths on for a week now; all quite tacky. My sister has announced on Facebook that her Christmas shopping is complete and her tree is decorated.

Despite my busy liturgical schedule, I'll leave my tree until Christmas Eve and it will stay up until the Baptism of the LORD. It is not Christmas now my friends, it is Advent. So many will tire of the beautiful carols and hymns and not without reason; bombarded everywhere they go and it is not Christmas, it is Advent. They buy, they decorate, they celebrate and they don't give a moment to ponder why they do it; the pagan festival that the celebration of the Nativity of the LORD once suppressed, has again become the secular reason for the season.

Atheists in New Jersey have put up a billboard telling us that we all know that Christmas is really a myth. The way people treat the season, perhaps for some, it truly is a myth.

While you're reading this your listening to some beautiful Advent music and these are some of my favourites which I've selected for your enjoyment. Veni, Veni Emmanuel, Alma Redemptoris, Saviour of the Nations Come-Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland, Wake Awake-Wachet Auf and Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending. I hope you enjoy them and that you will find truth and meaning and beauty in them.

Let us take this Advent seriously. Confession is a must for all of us, we are all sinners and fall daily. He who comes on clouds came for this reason; to save us from ourselves and from the grips of the evil one.

Marantha!

Come, LORD, come!

LO! HE COMES WITH CLOUDS DESCENDING

Lo! He comes with clouds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of His train:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign.

Every eye shall now behold Him
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold Him,
Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.

Every island, sea, and mountain,
Heav’n and earth, shall flee away;
All who hate Him must, confounded,
Hear the trump proclaim the day:
Come to judgment! Come to judgment! Come to judgment!
Come to judgment! Come away!

Now redemption, long expected,
See in solemn pomp appear;
All His saints, by man rejected,
Now shall meet Him in the air:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
See the day of God appear!

Answer Thine own bride and Spirit,
Hasten, Lord, the general doom!
The new Heav’n and earth t’inherit,
Take Thy pining exiles home:
All creation, all creation, all creation,
Travails! groans! and bids Thee come!

The dear tokens of His passion
Still His dazzling body bears;
Cause of endless exultation
To His ransomed worshippers;
With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
Gaze we on those glorious scars!

Yea, Amen! let all adore Thee,
High on Thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory,
Claim the kingdom for Thine own;
O come quickly! O come quickly! O come quickly!
Everlasting God, come down!