2025.12.21
The fourth sunday of Advent turns from the Second Coming of
Christ and the preparation for his adult ministry, the foci of the first three Sundays, to events in the Gospel narratives that prepare for his birth: the Annunciation and Visitation, and this year, the angelic announcement to St Joseph in a dream. At the 11:15 Eucharist in the parish I serve, we honor this saint with a hymn for his feast day, ‘Come now, and praise the humble saint’ [ 260 ]. This modern text ties his profession of carpenter to God’s role as Architect, and contrasts his earthly humility with the glory he enjoys in heaven; it is set to one of a handful of tunes written by English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis for Archbishop Parker’s metrical psalter.
We begin our liturgies with a hymn by Charles Wesley, ‘Come, thou long-expected Jesus’ [ 66 ], a fine and familiar text that has been discussed in these pages before. The tune to which it is sung, named ‘Stuttgart’ by modern English-
Our focus on St Ambrose’s hymn ‘Veni redemptor gentium’, the basis of our 11:15 service music and organ preludes in Advent, culminates this week with a choral setting of the entire hymn, only parts of which are paraphrased in the Hymnal ( ‘Savior of the nations, come’ [ 54, with a simpler version of the melody ] and ‘Redeemer of the nations, come’ [ 55, with its fuller chant melody ]). The translation sung by the choir is my own ( save that of stanza 6, whose version by John Mason Neale is difficult to better ) and begins with the hymn’s original first stanza, a scene-
The hymn is much concerned with both the Blessed Virgin’s pregnancy and her chastity, and is unabashed in dealing with the physical circumstances involved. It was not my purpose to avoid any of the foregoing – sacramental Christianity believes fully in the ability of the created order to bear the Uncreated, and 2025 is a bit late to be prudish – but at the same time our sensibilities are slightly different from those of the fourth century, and St Mary surely has many other qualities worth celebrating ( ‘virtutum’ in the text is plural, after all ). Certain words and images in my version refer, however obliquely, not only to her ‘honor’ but also to those other, God-
O King of Israel, give ear:
before your people now appear;
angel-enthroned, who all things made,
stir up your strength, come to our aid!
Come, O Redeemer of the earth;
reveal yourself in virgin birth:
let all the world at this be awed,
this wondrous birth befitting God.
Grown not from human-planted seed,
but borne upon God’s Breath, indeed
the Word of God has taken flesh,
the blest womb’s fruit has blossomed fresh.
The belly of the Virgin swells:
God in this modest temple dwells,
whose courts for ever stand in place,
bright beacon of a godly grace.
He sets forth from his Mother’s womb,
his comely hall, his royal room,
divine and human both, yet one,
our champion, keen his race to run.
From God the Father he proceeds,
to God the Father back he speeds;
his course he runs to death and hell,
returning on God’s throne to dwell.
Immortal, don our human skin,
the victor’s spoils which you shall win:
our feeble frame thus fortify
with strength divine that cannot die.
Your crib now shines with radiance bright;
the night reflects your new-breathed light,
which fires a faith that shall not fail
and darkness nevermore can veil.
Stanzas 1–5, 7–8 © 2025 Eric Mellenbruch
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.