November 2024: Simple Traditions

On Tuesday of this week, the students and staff gathered around the large Advent wreath in the quad, as Father McLaughlin blessed it and the first candle was lit. As I shared with the students and staff, it is one of my favorite rituals we celebrate as a school community. Brief, but very meaningful for the season, it carries so much symbolism and reminders of what it means to keep Advent.

That evening, before dinner, my wife and I lit the first candle of our Advent wreath, a tradition that we began in our home since we were married 38 years ago. Our children, when they were old enough, took turns lighting the candles each evening as we said our prayer before dinner, often taken from a book of daily reflections prepared for Advent.

The evening after the wreath lighting at Archmere, I was watching a Christmas special from the Grand Ole Oprey, and one of the newer musical acts sang a version of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” that was, let’s just say, very different from the way we sing it in church. The words of the hymn are based on the “O Antiphons” prayed by the Catholic Church as early as the 8th century from December 17 to 23. They accompany the “Magnificat” canticle. Each of the seven days, a different antiphon is sung using imagery from the Old Testament to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. Each of the antiphons uses the word, “come” to emphasize the excited anticipation of Jesus’ birth. I am sure there have been many renditions of the Advent hymn. The current metrical form of the hymn dates to the 12th century. 

Each antiphon begins with the Latin phrase as follows:

O Sapentia (Wisdom)
O Adonai (Hebrew word for God)
O Radix Jesse (stem or root of Jesse)
O Clavis David (key of David)
O Oriens (dayspring)
O Rex genitium (King of the Gentiles)
O Emmanuel

Put together, the first letter of the second word of each antiphon spells SARCORE. If read backwards, the letters form a two-word acrostic, ‘Ero cras,’ meaning ‘I will be present tomorrow.’” (History of Hymns; "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”)

In thinking about the origins of the hymn, I was curious to know about the history of the Advent wreath, which has its roots in the pre-Christian Germanic culture. People would light candles during the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, waiting for longer days of sunlight to return. The practice was adopted by the Church in the Middle Ages to mark the weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas, celebrating Jesus Christ as the “light of the world.”
(The Sacred Meaning Behind the Catholic Advent Wreath)

Whether it is lighting the Advent wreath among members of a community, Church, or at home, it is a simple, perhaps adapted, yet ancient, and profound tradition, just as singing the hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” has deep and complex textual meanings that perhaps we do not realize or fully appreciate.

In Book X of his “Confessions,” Saint Augustine wrote, “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created.”  Just as we presume something is new, we discover that it has its origins in things ancient. In trying to find God in the newness of life outside of ourselves we realize that God is “within” us, ever present. 

Perhaps the simplest of traditions and rituals have a way of reminding us, of bringing us to a mindful place about the reality of Christmas. May this journey of Advent be a time for us of inward focus and contemplation, peace and contentment, removing obstacles and burdens we have made a part of our everyday lives, and making room within to discover the Jesus who was born over two thousand years ago. “Veni, veni, Emmanuel!” Happy Advent!