THE ADVENT PROSE: DESOLATION, ABANDONMENT, PROMISE & LIBERATION Fr. Mark Greenaway-Robbins, December 7th, 2013. I first heard it sung in Jerusalem, that city where even the stones are filled with longing and desire; where the inhabitants live life in the imperative. It was the season of Advent. I was nineteen and living at St. George's Anglican Cathedral where I became immersed in the Liturgy of the Church and the politics of the Holy Land. I was sat near the nave altar in the Cathedral. In my mind's eye I can still hear and see a priest who during the Mass sang the following text: Pour down, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness.
(Isaiah 45:8)
This opening refrain is taken from the prophet Isaiah (45.8). The full text is known as The Advent Prose. It has been described as giving "exquisite poetical expression to the longings of Patriarchs and Prophets, and symbolically of the Church, for the coming of the Messiah". (Henry, Hugh. "Rorate Coeli." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.) Curiously, in spite of its name, it is a poem of longing for Christ. The Advent Prose is a distinctive text from the Tradition of the Church which can be sung, or said, at Mass and also at Morning and Evening Prayer during Advent. This poem is a compilation of verses from the prophet Isaiah. It comprises four stanzas with a refrain which can be found on page four of your Sunday bulletin. Let's hear the first verse: Turn your fierce anger from us, O Lord, and remember not our sins forever. Your holy cities have become a desert, Zion a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation; our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you. Here the speaker is addressing God and describes an experience of desolation.
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(Isaiah 64:9-11)