Come, Emmanuel!

December 1st signaled the time to resume our family advent readings. Sometime between supper and bedtime in our long, dark, northern evenings, we light the candle(s) and turn our focus to the Light of the World. A special part of our times together this year is ending with a Christmas carol, a cappella.

 

In our hymnal (not the pages pictured here), hymn #100 begins the Christmas section. As we wait for Christmas and remember God's children waiting centuries for the first advent of Christ, we began, appropriately, with "O come, O come, Emmanuel." Translated from the 8th or 9th century Latin by John M. Neale in 1861, this has long been one of my favorite Christmas carols.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

    Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel
    Shall come to thee, O Israel!

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
And drive away the shades of night,
And pierce the clouds and bring us light!

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heav'nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease;
Fill all the world with heaven's peace.

    Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel
    Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Hymns Ancient and Modern, first edition 1861, edited by William Henry Monk

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Yes, Emmanuel has come! Rejoice!

And yet we yearn for Him to come again...