Happy Feast of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor!

Gracious God of majesty and awe,

Who made the bishop Ambrose

a exemplary teacher of the Catholic faith

and a model of apostolic courage:

We seek Your protection,

look for Your healing,

and hope for Your mercies,

for they cannot be numbered.

Raise up in Your Church men

after Your own heart to govern

with courage and wisdom,

and make us worthy to taste

the Holy of Holies,

through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Today's image is by Anthonis van Dyck. If it had a caption, it might well be, "In matters of faith, bishops judge Christian emperors, not emperors bishops."

Advent Music

We don't hear much about Advent at this time of year. Once Thanksgiving passes, we pass over Advent in the rush to get to Christmas. We have forgotten that we must first patiently wait and ask for God's grace to prepare for the birth of Jesus.

One result of forgetting to live Advent is that we start listening to Christmas songs well before Christmas. But, if you want to hear some actual Advent music that expresses the Church's longing for the coming of the Savior, there is some out there. This week I discovered this setting by Bach (BWV 62/1) of Martin Luther's chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, which is a German translation of Veni, Redemptor Gentium, a much older hymn traditionally attributed to St. Ambrose of Milan.



The videos for the remaining movements can be seen here.

Finally, today begins the singing at vespers of the so-called O antiphons.