Monday, December 21, 2015

December 21, 2015



Monday: O Dayspring, splendor of light everlasting: Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

            Before services last weekend, I mentioned a series of antiphons that the Church has used as a sort of countdown to Christmas. (An antiphon is a verse to be sung responsively before and after a song or psalm, in this case the Magnificat.) These antiphons date back about 1500 years and reflect on the various titles of our Lord Jesus.
            The antiphon for December 21 calls Jesus the Dayspring, which is an old way of referring to the dawn. In today’s antiphon, we are reminded of the prophesies made in Isaiah that those sitting in darkness would see a great light. (For your reflection, the passage is here.)
            Our Christmas celebration includes a midnight (11 pm, actually) service that uses candles to reflect the hope of a new day dawning and a morning service (10 am) that celebrates the coming of the light in the person of Jesus Christ. I hope you’ll be able join us at Divine Savior!
            God’s light has, indeed, dawned in the coming of our Lord Jesus in Bethlehem. And still we wait for another dawn, the dawn of the Last Day. (See this verse, too.)

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