Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2014 | Page 30

the FoUrth Antiphon

the FiFth Antiphon

the sixth Antiphon

o key oF dAvid and
scepter of the house of Israel, you
open and no one can close, you
close and no one can open: come
and rescue the prisoners who
are in darkness and the shadow
of death.

o dAysprinG , splendor of
light everlasting: come and
enlighten those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death.

o kinG of the nations, the ruler
they long for, the cornerstone
uniting all people: come and save
us all, whom you formed out
of clay.

the  meditAtion

the  meditAtion

the  meditAtion

s 

i

hackled in the obscurity
of our prison, locked in,
solipsistic, we see only
our own sin,
unable to escape
our insufficiencies.
But the promise of release
has been there all along.
We pluck the key
from our bosom
and the chains release,
the prison door opens.
There in our baptism
is our freedom.
All we have ever needed
to do is remember it.
We await him.
Come, Lord Jesus.

n December already at 4:00
in the afternoon, shadows overtake us
and only the treetops catch the l ast
slant of sunlight. Then the darkness
deepens beyond all imagining,
this darkness of spirit which admits
no glimmer or ray.
Here in the sanctuary the Advent
candles,
lit one by one, week by week,
first pinpricks then lengthening
flame,
gather the light and focus it.
The days begin to lengthen
imperceptibly
and now, finally, is the time for new
light—
the faint dawn, the first, tiny signs.
Now is the time for a paling sky,
pink at the tree line.

t

he Word that shaped creation
spun the dust, gathered the seas,
carved the clay, sparked the life.

This Word more than the un-Worded
words of careless speech. This Word
the gospel, the cornerstone, the king
who shatters the darkness,
who gives sight, who becomes the bright
fleshprint of incarnation.
This is the remote become immediate,
the abstract made concrete, the dream
become certain. This is the birth-marked
Word that created our senses
and opened them. He breathes
on us and we live.
We await him.
Come, Lord Jesus.

We await him.
Come, Lord Jesus.

28     w i n t e r   2 0 1 4

Many thanks to Augsburg Fortress for granting permission to print excerpts from The Great O Antiphons:
A Service for Advent, by Carl Schalk and Jill Peláez Baumgaertner (Augsburg Fortress, 2013). With seven motets
composed for SATB voices by Carl Schalk, the book brings together the “Great O Antiphons,” choral presentations,
poetic meditations, and congregational singing for the church and its people during the Christmas season.