From Lament to a Nevertheless Hope

Advent is a home for our longing that is at once ancient and new every day. We join our longing for the full inbreaking of God’s justice, peace, and liberating love to the longing of our forebears in the faith. Like them, we continue to wait while also being called into embodying our hope. Not because the conditions seem optimistic, but – in the face of any and all circumstances, with broken hearts – we “nevertheless / even now” enact our collective hope in the world around us.

Hymn 216 – Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming. Text: stanzas 1–2 anon., “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen,” (present-day Germany), 15th c.; Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengasäng, 1599; trans. Theodore Baker (USA), 1894; stanza 3 Friedrich Layritz (Germany), Liederschatz, 1832; trans. Harriet K. Spaeth (USA), The Hymnal, 1940, alt. Music: German traditional, 15th c.; Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengasäng, 1599; harm. Michael Praetorius (Germany), Musae Sionae VI, 1609. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, license #A-726929. All rights reserved.