Provincial Day in London - Part 2

At the close of the Provincial Day on December 17th, the friars celebrated Solemn Vespers. After a period of silent prayer in St Dominic's Church we gathered in the cloister for the start of the liturgy. The video below shows clips from Vespers. The music is a long responsory sung by four cantors during the liturgy:

Qui venturus est, veniet, et non tardabit: et iam non erit timor in finibus nostris: quoniam ipse est Salvator noster.

Deponet omnes iniquitates nostras, et proiciet in profundum maris omnia peccata nostra /quoniam ipse est Salvator noster.

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto / quoniam ipse est Salvator noster.

The one who is to come shall come and not delay, and there will be fear in our land no longer, for he is our Saviour. 

He will tread all our iniquities underfoot, and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea / for he is our Saviour.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit / for he is our Saviour.

During the liturgy, the Provincial instituted three of the student brothers - frs Graham Hunt, Mark Davoren and Gregory Pearson - as Lectors. 

This lay ministry is conferred on those who are training for the priesthood although it is not restricted to these men. The lector is instituted to proclaim in the liturgies the readings from Sacred Scripture, with the exception of the gospel reading. They are to develop a warm and lively love for Scripture and hand on this love through their proclamation of the word of God and their instruction of people in the faith.

Please remember us in your prayers that we may faithfully and joyfully preach the word of God and continue always to contemplate that word in our own hearts.

Provincial Day in London - Part 1

Dominican friars from five houses in England and two houses in Scotland gathered in St Dominic's Priory, London, on 17 December 2008 for a Provincial Day. The morning session focused on the theology and preaching of St Paul. 


Mr Jonathan Gorsky, who lectures at Heythrop College, was invited to speak from a Jewish perspective about St Paul. He highlighted the unique Jewish and Hellenistic background of St Paul, and helped to place his writings in their context. Fr Richard Ounsworth OP, who teaches Scripture at Blackfriars Hall, considered the 'new perspective' on St Paul's writings current among certain Scripture scholars, and he pointed out ways in which this was helpful or otherwise for preachers today.

Discussion followed the presentations, and all were agreed that the singular peculiarity of Jesus and his uniqueness is what finally explains St Paul's distinctive writing and theology, which are nevertheless rooted in his particular Jewish background.

The Provincial Day was also a chance for the brothers to spend time together in fraternal conversation and prayer.

Christmas responsory

Above is a live recording from Second Vespers of Christmas celebrated in Blackfriars, Oxford. This is the responsory sung after the scripture reading.

Descendit de caelis Deus verus a Patre genitus: introivit in uterum Virginis, nobis ut appareret visibilis, indutus carne humana a proto parente edita, et exivit per clausam portam Deus et homo, Lux et Vita, Conditor mundi.

Tamquam sponsus Dominus procedens de thalamo suo.

Lux et Vita, Conditor mundi.

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.

Lux et Vita, Conditor mundi.

He came down from heaven: true God, begotten of the Father: he entered the Virgin's womb, that he might be made clearly manifest to us, clothed in human flesh put forth by the Creator, he went out through the closed door, God and man, Light and Life, Author of the world.

Like a bridegroom, the Lord coming forth from his chamber.

Light and Life, Author of the world.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Light and Life, Author of the world.

26 December - St Stephen, Protomartyr

A homily for St Stephen's Day by Fr Vivian Boland, the master of students, may be found here

Happy Christmas from Godzdogz

Father all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Today you fill our hearts with joy as we recognise in Christ the revelation of your love.

No eye can see his glory as our God, yet now he is seen as one like us.

Christ is your Son before all ages, yet now he is born in time.

He has come to lift up all things to himself, to restore unity to creation, and to lead humankind from exile into your heavenly kingdom ...

Verbum Abbreviatum

Below the sanctuary of the ancient Roman Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, or St Mary Major, in Rome is the Crypt of the Nativity. Here several pieces of wooden board are preserved which traditionally are held to be relics of the Nativity Crib. Each year on Christmas Eve they are placed on the High Altar of the Church to be publically venerated. For most of the year, however, these rather ordinary pieces of wood, slightly hidden in their elaborate reliquary, can so easily go unnoticed by the many visitors who come to this Church to observe the splendour of its magnificent interior. And yet these simple relics conceal something of great depth, for they point to that momentous event which we celebrate each Christmas when God, by taking our humanity, came into the world to dwell among us.

When thinking about the nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem Christian thinkers of the past have often been struck at the way in which something seemingly so commonplace and everyday as a new-born baby in its crib could, at the same time, conceal such a profound meaning and significance for the world. Commenting on this paradox, a medieval Cistercian Abbot named Guerric, a student of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote: ‘is it not astonishing that the Word of God should have abbreviated all his words to us when it willed to be abbreviated itself and made insignificant, so to speak, that it somehow contracted its immeasurable greatness and entered the confines of a mother’s womb, and that he who holds the world in his hands allowed himself to be laid in a crib?’

This medieval writer draws our attention to the way in which all those many words that God had spoken in various ways and at different times to his people in the past (Hebrews 1:1) are now summarised in this one incarnate Word of God, this Verbum Abbreviatum or Abridged Word, who lies as a new-born child in the crib at Bethlehem. For Christians Jesus is not the first word spoken to the world by God, but he is God’s word to the world expressed definitively and in all its fullness, the culminating point of the salvation history of Israel. For in the person of Jesus Christ, God has now made it possible for us to experience him as he really is. Jesus is God’s self-expression to the world, his presence among us.

The joy of this discovery by the first Christians, and their eagerness to share their encounter with God in the person of Jesus Christ, is recorded for us in the New Testament: ‘that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete’ (1 John 1:3-4). The biblical writer clearly perceives that our relationship with God has a clear ecclesial dimension - it is only in the fellowship of the Church that our spiritual growth towards God can properly take place.

One of the reasons for Christian joy comes from the knowledge that Christ is able to provide the answer to the deepest questions about the meaning and direction of our lives and can thus satisfy that yearning for happiness and fulfilment deep within each of us. The journey of the Magi to Bethlehem in search of the infant king of the Jews has been seen as emblematic of the persistent human search for the answer to the deepest longings of the heart. The Magi found their answer in the fragile form of an ordinary human child, seemingly so ordinary and humble, lying in the manger at Bethlehem. Saint Peter Chrysologus, one of the Church Fathers, wrote about this event: ‘The Magi are filled with awe by what they see; heaven on earth and earth in heaven; man in God and God in man; they see enclosed in a tiny body the One whom the entire world cannot contain’.

This reflection is by Brother Thomas Skeats OP, a student of the English Province who is currently studying at the Angelicum University in Rome

O Emmanuel - 23 December

O Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, for whom the nations wait, their Saviour: come to save us, Lord, our God.

O Rex Gentium - 22 December

O King of the Nations, whom they desire, and the cornerstone, who join two together into one: come and save mankind, whom you formed from the clay.

Anniversary of the Approval of the Order of Preachers

Seven hundred and ninety-two years ago today, Pope Honorius III gave official approval of the creation of the Order of Preachers by our Holy Father Dominic. Let us thank God for his blessings on the Order and pray that he will sustain and fortify us. Below is the text of the Bull of approval and an image of the original:

Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved sons Dominic, prior of St. Romanus in Toulouse, and his brethren, both present and future, professed in the regular life. In perpetuum.

It is fitting that apostolic protection should be extended to those choosing the religious life, lest temerarious attacks should possibly turn them away from their purpose or, God forbid, destroy the vigour of the sacred religious institute. Wherefore, beloved sons in the Lord, we benevolently assent to your just requests. We take the Church of St. Romanus in Toulouse, where you have given yourselves to the service of God, under the protection of St. Peter and our own, and we secure it with the present written privilege.

In the first place, indeed, we decree that the canonical Order which is known to be established according to God and the Rule of St. Augustine in the said Church should be inviolably preserved forever.

Moreover, that whatever possessions and whatever goods the said church at present justly and canonically possesses or shall be able, the Lord granting, to acquire in the future through the concession of the popes, the liberality of kings or princes, the offerings of the faithful, or other just means, should belong firmly and inviolably to you and your successors. Among these goods, we have deemed it well to name the following: the place itself where the said church is situated, with its properties; the church of Prouille with its properties; the estate of Caussanel with its properties; the church of St. Mary of Lescure with its properties; the hospice in Toulouse, called “the Hospice of Arnold Bernard,” with its properties; the church of the Holy Trinity in Loubens, with its properties; and the tithes which, in his good and provident liberality, our venerable brother Foulques, the bishop of Toulouse, with the consent of his chapter, has given you, as this is more explicitly contained in his letters.

Also let no one presume to exact or extort from you tithes from the fruits of the lands which you cultivate with your own hands or at your own expense, or from the produce of your animals.

Moreover, you may receive and keep, without opposition from anyone, members of the clergy or the laity who are free men and unencumbered by debt, who flee from the world to enter the religious life.

Furthermore, we prohibit any of your brethren, after they have made profession in your church to depart from it without the permission of their prior, except for the purpose of entering a stricter religious institute. If one should leave, let no one dare to receive him without the authorization of a letter from your community.

In the parochial churches which you hold, you may select priests and present them to the bishop of the diocese, to whom, if they are worthy, the bishop shall entrust the care of souls, so that they may be responsible to him in spiritual matters and to you in temporal matters.

We decree further that no one may impose new and unjust exactions on your church, or promulgate sentences of excommunication or interdict on you or your church without a manifest and just cause. When, however, a general interdict shall be laid on the whole territory, it will be permitted to you to celebrate the divine office behind closed doors, chanting in a low voice, not ringing the bells, and excluding those under excommunication and interdict.

The sacred Chrism, holy oils, the consecration of altars or basilicas, and the ordination of clerics who are to be promoted to holy orders, you shall obtain from the bishop of the diocese, so long as he is a Catholic and in grace and communion with the most holy Roman See and is willing to impart these to you without any irregularity. Otherwise, you may approach any Catholic bishop you may choose, provided he be in grace and communion with the Apostolic See; and armed with our authority, he may impart to you what you petition.

Moreover, we grant this place freedom of burial. Let no one, then, place an obstacle to the devotion and last will of those who choose to be buried there, provided they are not excommunicated or under interdict. However, the just rights of the churches from which the corpses are taken must be safeguarded.

When you, who are now the Prior of this place, or any of your successors shall go out of office, no one shall be appointed by secret craftiness or violence; but only he whom the brethren, by common agreement, or whom those brethren who are of more mature and sound judgment shall choose to elect according to God and the Rule of St. Augustine.

Furthermore, the liberties, ancient immunities, and reasonable customs granted to your church and observed up to this time, we ratify and command that they shall endure inviolably for all future time. We decree, therefore, that no one may rashly disturb the aforementioned church, take away its possessions or, having removed, keep them, diminish them, or harass them by any kind of molestation, but all these goods shall be preserved intact entirely for the control, sustenance, and use of those for whom they have been granted, saving the authority of the Apostolic See and the canonical rights of the diocesan bishop.

If, therefore, in the future any ecclesiastical or secular person whosoever, having knowledge of this our document, shall rashly attempt to contravene it, and if, after a second or third admonition, he refuses to correct his fault by fitting satisfaction, let him forfeit the dignity of his power and honor; and let him know that he shall stand guilty of the perpetrated evil before God’s judgment and shall be denied the most sacred Body and Blood of our God and Lord, our Saviour Jesus Christ, and shall, at the last judgment, be delivered to strict vengeance. Nevertheless, may all those who uphold the rights of the said place have the peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, receive the fruit of good action here on earth, and, before the Just Judge, receive the rewards of eternal peace. Amen, amen, amen.

I, Honorius, Bishop of the Catholic Church.

Perfect my steps in your ways. Fare ye well!

[Then follow the signatures of eighteen cardinals.]

Given at Rome at St. Peter, by the hand of Ranerio, Prior of Santo Fridiano in Lucca, Vice-Chancellor of the holy Roman Church, on the eleventh of the kalends of January, the fifth indiction, the 1216th year of Our Lord’s Incarnation, the first year of the Lord Pope, Honorius III.

O Oriens - 21 December

O Rising Sun, splendour of eternal Light and sun of righteousness: come and shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

There can be a natural human tendency to believe that we can achieve anything through our own efforts. As we approach the final straight of Advent, with Christmas in our sights, we may feel that we can pat ourselves on the back and say to God: “Haven’t I done well over Advent”. In many ways King David, with good intentions, has a similar attitude. He believes that, with his power and position, he can now prepare a suitable dwelling for God. God, however, tells David, through the prophet Nathan, that his journey from shepherd-boy to victorious King is only through the action and participation of God in his life. God inverts the offer of David and declares that the Lord will make him a house, meaning not simply a dwelling place but a great dynasty.

This truly great dynasty is established in the creation of a suitable dwelling place for the Lord: Our Lady, Theotokos, the God-bearer. Through her Immaculate Conception she has been prepared for the acceptance of her task, God’s greatest intervention is fulfilled, 'let what you have said be done to me', and God becomes man.

Let us follow the example of the Handmaid of the Lord and realise that everything we do is sustained and aided by God, without whom we have nothing, are nothing, and can do nothing. Let us pray that this Christmas we may be stripped of pride, allow ourselves to hear God’s voice, and respond in humility.

O Clavis - 20 December

O Key of David, and sceptre of the house of Israel, who open and no one shuts, who shut and no one opens: come and bring out the captive from the prison-house, him who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death.

O Radix - 19 December

"O Root of Jesse, set up as a sign for the peoples, before whom kings will stop their mouths, to whom the nations will pray: come to set us free, delay no more."

O Adonai - 18 December

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush, and who gave him the law on Sinai: come to redeem us with outstretched arm.

Oxford Priory Christmas Concert

Advent Talk 3 on video

This year's third and final Advent talk, delivered by Br Daniel Mary Jeffries, O.P. on Wednesday night, is now available in a pre-recorded video for readers who cannot join us for our weekly talk, meditation and Compline.

O Sapientia - 17 December

The text of today‘s antiphon is

O Wisdom, who came forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other, powerfully and sweetly ordering all things: come to teach us the way of prudence.

Jesus, the Word or Wisdom of God, is like a bridge reaching from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven. We are invited to journey towards our Father by stepping on this bridge and following where it leads. Walking this 'way of prudence' helps to make the kingdom of God visible in our time. The one who utters the invitation is none less than the Messiah himself.

Rorate Caeli (Introit)

The Fourth Sunday of Advent recalls the Annunciation when the Word of God took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. As such, we find that the entrance chant (Introit) for both this final Sunday of Advent and the feast of the Annunciation (25 March) are the same. The words are taken from Isaiah 45:8 but given a specifically Christ-centred interpretation: "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down the Just One; let the earth open, that the Saviour may sprout forth, and let it cause justice to spring up also; I the LORD have begotten him."

Below is a video of this chant sung by the Dominican brothers at Blackfriars Oxford. As is typical of an entrance chant, the 'Gloria Patri' is sung after the verse from Isaiah, and then the refrain is repeated.

Third Sunday of Advent - The One Who Is Coming

On this, the third Sunday of Advent or Gaudete Sunday, we sense a definite mood change. The austerity of what can be a sombre though hope-filled penitential season is replaced by a shift of emphasis. We see a burst of colour appearing at the Mass today as rose coloured vestments replace the violet and we are enjoined at the Introit to: Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice or Gaudete in Domino semper, hence Gaudete Sunday. But why this shift in emphasis? We are edging that bit nearer to celebrating the coming of Our Lord at Christmas, that is undeniably true, but looking at today’s Gospel we also see that we have built upon last week’s message of preparation in Mark’s Gospel and now we see John the Baptist actively proclaiming the Coming. ‘There stands among you – unknown to you – the one who is coming’. John the Baptist’s proclamation is sure and certain, filled with hope and, one must assume, wholly joyful. Can we also feel in the depths of our hearts such joy as we hear this news? Amidst the tumult of our everyday lives - the rush to find the right presents, get the cards away on time, and attend the obligatory functions – are we allowing ourselves to find the time to truly prepare and more dauntingly perhaps, truly proclaim, this wonderful news? That Christ is in us, each and every one, and that, in little over a week, we will celebrate the most astonishing and fantastic event that is Christ’s birth here in our midst should truly fill us with such joy and peace. However, it can only do so if we allow ourselves the time to reflect, to pray and to prepare. Only then will we, like John the Baptist, be so moved by the Spirit that we will also wish to proclaim this blessed coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in a world that greatly needs to hear His message.

Blessed Francesco Coll y Guitart O.P.

On Tuesday the 9^th of December, the Holy Father approved several miracles and declarations of heroic virtue, moving nine people closer to canonization. One of the miracles was attributed to the intercession of Blessed Francesco Coll y Guitart O.P.

Francesco was born in Spain in 1812. He received his early education in the Diocesan Seminary of Vic and received the Dominican habit in Genoa in 1830. The Order was expelled from Genoa in 1835 by a hostile government. He was ordained the following year and would spend the next forty years preaching across Catalonia and living a life of exceptional austerity. He was named Director of the Secular Order of Dominican Tertiaries in 1850.

In 1856 he founded the Congregation of the Dominican Nuns of the Annunciation, for the care of the poor and the marginalised. In his final years his health and eyesight began to fail and he was cared for by the nuns of his congregation. He died in 1875 at the age of 62. His remains lie in the chapel of the Motherhouse of the congregation he founded. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1979.

Conditor alme siderum

The Vespers hymn for Advent, 'Conditor alme siderum', dates to the 7th-century. This hymn spans all of salvation history, from creation to the end of time when the entire created order will be redeemed and caught up in the life of the Trinity. It is particularly well-suited to the season of Advent because it alludes both to Christ's coming at Christmas for our salvation, and to His final return in glory. At the centre of the hymn, then, is a reference to Philippians 2:8-11: "And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Below is a video of this hymn with its distinctive tune recorded by the brothers at Blackfriars Oxford.



Conditor alme siderum,
aeterna lux credentium,
Christe, redemptor omnium,
exaudi preces supplicum.

Qui condolens interitu
mortis perire saeculum,
salvasti mundum languidum,
donans reis remedium.

Vergente mundi vespere,
uti sponsus de thalamo,
egressus honestissima
Virginis matris clausula.

Cuius forti potentiae
genu curvantur omnia;
caelestia, terrestria
nutu fatentur subdita.

Te, deprecamur hagie,
venture iudex saeculi,
conserva nos in tempore
hostis a telo perfidi.

Laus, honor, virtus, gloria,
Deo Patri et Filio
Sancto simul Paraclito,
in sempiterna saecula. Amen.

Creator of the stars of night,
Thy people's everlasting light,
Jesu, Redeemer, save us all,
and hear Thy servants when they call.

Thou, grieving that the ancient curse
should doom to death a universe,
hast found the medicine, full of grace,
to save and heal a ruined race.

Thou camest, the Bridegroom of the Bride,
as drew the world to evening tide,
proceeding from a virgin shrine,
the spotless Victim all divine.

At whose dread Name, majestic now,
all knees must bend, all hearts must bow;
and things celestial Thee shall own,
and things terrestrial Lord alone.

O Thou whose coming is with dread,
to judge and doom the quick and dead,
preserve us, while we dwell below,
from every insult of the foe.

To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, Three in One,
laud, honor, might, and glory be
from age to age eternally. Amen.

Advent Talk 2 on video

This year's second Advent talk, delivered by Br Robert Verrill, O.P. on Wednesday night, is now available in a pre-recorded video for readers who cannot join us for our weekly talk, meditation and Compline.

Advent Talks 2008

If you are in Oxford on any of the Wednesdays before Christmas you are welcome to join us for an Advent talk followed by meditation and Compline. Details are on the poster above.

The Immaculate Conception - Wonderful Gift of God’s Grace

“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). This greeting of the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation tells us so much about Mary’s deep and wonderful relationship with God. Mary was chosen from before her birth. Mary, from her first moment of conception, was preserved free from all stain of original sin. This was done through a unique grace granted her by Almighty God through the merits of Christ. While the act of grace performed for Mary that we celebrate today is unique, we are all called to live the life of grace which helps each person, made in the image and likeness of our Creator, to participate fully in God’s life.

Mary shows us what being fully open to that life of grace can do for us. So joyful is she because of God’s extraordinary love that she cries out in Luke’s Gospel : “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” Each of us is warmly invited into that deep and loving relationship with God. We are called to be full of grace and to glorify God with our lives. Later in Luke Jesus tells us : “My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21). We are called to celebrate what God has done in Mary, a human being, and to imitate her in our lives so we can share forever in the transforming love of God. As St Augustine said: "Mary is blessed because she ‘heard the word of God and kept it’. Her mind was filled more fully with Truth than her womb by his flesh".

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee

Advent Vespers

On 5 December, the community at Blackfriars Oxford marked the end of term with solemn Vespers and carols, followed by a reception for students and staff of Blackfriars Hall and Studium.



Above is a video montage of photos from solemn Vespers with music recorded at the service, which will give you a glimpse into our liturgical celebration. 

Below are photos from the reception that followed the service:

Second Sunday of Advent- A Voice Cries

Readings: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

Different kinds of landscape evoke different responses in us, perhaps even shape different kinds of people: the rugged coastlines of Scotland or Ireland contrast with the green hills of Tipperary or Derbyshire. In Palestine too there are contrasting landscapes, in the north the rich and fertile valleys and hillsides of Galilee running down to the sparkling waters of the Lake, in the south the parched and merciless hills of Judea ending in a sea of salt, the Dead Sea. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness and not in the rich pasturelands of Galilee. He cut a strange figure, as rugged and austere as the countryside through which he moved. Close to nature in one sense—dressed in camel skin, eating locusts and wild honey—he seemed to be quite detached from it in another—focussed exclusively on his ‘baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’.

The wilderness already had an honoured place in the history and consciousness of Israel. The great trek to freedom saw the people following Moses and wandering in that wilderness for forty years, before Joshua finally led them across the river Jordan into the promised land. The prophets often recalled those years as the years of Israel’s first love, when she was a young bride being betrothed to her Lord in integrity and faithfulness.

Times of power, settlement and comfort led, as they must, to corruption and compromise, to betrayal and the loss of integrity. Only the profoundly shocking experience of the exile made Israel sit up and take notice. But by then all was lost: the people were exiled from the land, the political leadership was overthrown, cities and towns were pillaged, it seemed that God’s promises were torn up, the covenant dissolved, the glory of the Lord left the Temple—the relationship forged in the wilderness years had, it seemed, irretrievably broken down.

At this lowest point in Israel’s history the prophet we call Second Isaiah raised a voice of encouragement and hope: ‘Comfort my people’, he cried out, ‘the time of trial is over. Speak a word of comfort to the heart of Jerusalem.’ The voice in the wilderness says to prepare a way for the Lord, a highway through the desert, filling in valleys, lowering hills, levelling out the rough and straightening the crooked. The people are to be led back—chastened, wounded, still hurting perhaps—but renewed, restored, revitalised.

It is a wonderful vision and it is the one to which the gospel writers spontaneously turned when they set out to record the story of Jesus. This good news began, says Mark, in the wilderness. The voice of comfort, encouragement and hope is the voice of this strange man John the Baptist. He is the voice crying in the wilderness, announcing an imminent visitation from God. ‘Someone more powerful than I is coming after me’, he says, ‘who will baptise you not just externally with water but internally with the Holy Spirit’, not just in the strength of our human longing but in the strength of God’s own love.

The wilderness of our hearts, the dead and dry places of our lives, these are to be visited by God—by God’s truthful and caring love—so that the renewal, restoration and revitalisation will be radical in us, happening deep within, in the darkness of our most intimate thoughts, desires, fears and longings.

This is not just a Sunday afternoon outing to the banks of the river to see a strange and eccentric street entertainer. The Second Letter of Peter makes that very clear. Radical upheaval is to be expected if there is to be the kind of change that is promised. The dramatic picture painted there (2 Pet 3.8-14), of the entire structure and landscape of the planet being thrown into disarray, recalls Israel’s experience of the exile, of complete disintegration.

How prepared can we be for the kind of radical change in our lives which the coming of God’s love might bring about? The comfort of Galilee with its gentle landscape and beautiful sunsets must give way at some point to the austerity and bitterness of Judea. Only by passing through the wilderness—for Jesus, the wilderness of Gethsemane and Calvary—do we have access to the real comfort of God, the place of rest, the salvation Jesus brings, the glory revealed in Him and promised to us.

Rorate Caeli

"Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Matthew 13:17). The Advent prose, Rorate Caeli', reflects these words of Our Lord as it sings of the longing of the prophets for a Redeemer, for the Just One to rain down upon the earth and satisfy the thirst of the human heart for justice, peace and salvation. The refrain is taken from Isaiah 45:8, "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness".

In the video below, the Dominican brothers at Blackfriars Oxford sing two verses of this beautiful chant.



Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant iustum.

Ne irascaris Domine, ne ultra memineris iniquitatis: ecce civitas Sancti facta est deserta: Sion deserta facta est: Jerusalem desolata est: domus sanctificationis tuae et gloriae tuae, ubi laudaverunt te patres nostri.

Consolamini, consolamini, popule meus: cito veniet salus tua: quare maerore consumeris, quia innovavit te dolor? Salvabo te, noli timere, ego enim sum Dominus Deus tuus, Sanctus Israel, Redemptor tuus.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity : behold the city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert. Jerusalem is desolate, the house of our holiness and of thy glory, where our fathers praised thee.

Be comforted, be comforted, my people; thy salvation shall speedily come. Why wilt thou waste away in sadness? why hath sorrow seized thee? I will save thee; fear not: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.

Advent Talk 1 on Video

This year's first Advent talk, delivered by Br Dennis Murphy, O.P. on Wednesday night, is now available in a pre-recorded video for readers who cannot join us for our weekly talk, meditation and Compline.