Advent I Saturday: Antiphon to Benedictus

"Zion be not dismayed, for behold, thy God cometh, Alleluia."

Cometh like the dawn,

Dayspringing from dark dryness,

Pillar of fire burning through the night,

O Oriens splendor lucis aeternae,

Never leaving its place in front of its people.

For lo! A bush burning in flames--

Unharmed,

Lights a Virgin's womb--

Unharmed.

Adonai cometh not like the echo, but the call.

Not with bridal wonder,

but with bridegroom's thunder

On the other side of the sky,

Wooing not with consuming but renewing

Ever imbuing the wedding garment we forgot to put on,

Ever undoing our hollowness with His hallowed wholeness.

Let me be the echo,

An answering ray thousands of miles away.

Oh, be not dismayed, for the night is far spent.

The day is at hand. Alleluia!