Resources – Advent 3 – 17 December 2023

Let us pray (in silence) [that God’s coming casts light into our hearts]

Incline your ear, O Lord, [or Incline your ear, O God,]
to our pleading,
and by the grace of your coming to us
enlighten the darkness of our hearts,
through Jesus Christ, our Saviour,
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

This is part of my reworking collects with history and commentary.

This is a collect in the Gregorian Sacramentary (135). It is in the Sarum Missal as the collect for Advent 3, and remained in the Roman Rite in that position through to the 1962 Missal, only losing that placing following the reforms of Vatican II. This collect is:

Aurem tuam, quaesumus, Domine, precibus nostris accommoda:
et mentis nostrae tenebras, gratia tuae visitationis illustra…

This is a collect shared by Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and others. Advent 3 has John the Baptist as a strong thread, the one who was not the light, but came to testify to the light. We cannot of ourselves, darkness cannot of itself, eliminate darkness, but light shining, by the very act of shining, removes darkness.

Click the link for my commentary for the collect for Advent 3 or see below.

Advent 3 – reflection from the collect/opening prayer (used by BCP TEC and others)
Advent 3 – reflection from the collect/opening prayer (used by CofE Common Worship and others)

The Third Sunday of Advent is often referred to as Gaudete Sunday (colour Rose).

Lectionary Readings Introduction

This site provides something different: many sites and books provide a brief summary of the reading – so that people read out or have in their pew sheet an outline of what they are about to hear. They are told beforehand what to expect. Does this not limit what they hear the Spirit address them? This site provides something different – often one cannot appreciate what is being read because there is no context provided. This site provides the context, the frame of the reading about to be heard. It could be used as an introduction, printed on a pew sheet (acknowledged, of course), or adapted in other ways. This is an experimental venture and I will see how useful it appears.

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Isaiah Chapters 56:1-66:24 are normally referred to as “Third Isaiah”. Their context appears to be in the Holy Land after the exiles have returned to Judah (ie. after 539BCE). There is suggestion that these oracles are from a disciple of Second Isaiah. The year of the Lord’s favour (61:2) refers to the Jubilee Year (Leviticus 25). This was to be every fifty years. Debts were cancelled, property returned to original owners. The first verses are the voice of the prophet, the second section of our reading are from the voice of Jerusalem. The omitted verses connect well with this week’s gospel reading – John has been presented as the son of a priest who, rather than taking up his right as priest, critiques the Jerusalem priesthood as a prophet.

I Thessalonians 5:16-24

This Sunday is traditionally called “Gaudete Sunday”. Gaudete means rejoice. This reading reflects that tradition. It comes from what is understood to be the first book in the New Testament. These are concluding remarks Paul has written from Corinth in 50 or 51CE. See more: http://www.liturgy.co.nz/lectionary/aos29.html

John 1:6-8, 19-28

The 1976 excavations in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem revealed the wealth of the Jerusalem priestly class. I am intrigued by John’s baptism occurring on the East bank of the Jordan – and wonder if there is political implications in those baptised wading through the Jordan into the land much as Joshua originally had.

Today’s readings online

Reflection on the Collect

This collect is part of my reworking collects with history and commentary.

Aurem tuam, quaesumus, Domine, precibus nostris accommoda:
et mentis nostrae tenebras, gratia tuae visitationis illustra…

There is now a similar collect in the Roman Rite on Monday of the Third Week of Advent:

Voci nostrae, quaesumus, Domine,
aures tuae pietati accomoda,
et cordis nostri tenebras
gratia Filii tui nos visitantis illustra.

Incline a merciful ear to our cry, we pray, O Lord,
and, casting light on the darkness of our hearts,
visit us with the grace of your Son.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Cranmer translated Advent 3’s collect for the 1549 BCP as:

LORD, we beseche thee, geve eare to our prayers, and by thy gracious visitacion lighten the darkenes of our hearte, by our Lorde Jesus Christe.

For the 1662 revision it was replaced by a new, rather didactic collect written by John Cossin, Bishop of Durham, focusing on ordination which took place following this Ember week.

quaesumus… precibus is literally “we beseech… our prayers”. I think, for too many contemporary ears, that is overkill – I have combined the ideas into the strong “our pleading”.

mentis, mens, might literally be translated as “mind”, but can also refer to conscience, and so includes heart and soul, as well as mind. Hence, I have stayed with Cranmer’s rendering of that.

Visito is clearly connected to our English word, “vision”. Going to see someone is another way of saying that you will visit someone. But there is also an element of judgment – punishment is “visited” on someone. “Visitation”, to many contemporaries, will give the impression of coming for a short period and leaving again. Hence, my rendering as, “your coming to us”.

Advent 3, in contemporary lectionaries, has John the Baptist as a strong thread, the one who was not the light, but came to testify to the light. We cannot of ourselves, darkness cannot of itself, eliminate darkness, but light shining, by the very act of shining, removes darkness.