O Oriens. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Thursday December 21, 2023 at 12:00AM in Chant
“
O Orient, Splendor of eternal light and Sun of justice ; come and
enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”
1.
The night of pagan times was long and dark, and seemed hopeless. Deeper
and deeper the nations were sinking in misery and vice. But at length
the Orient, the brightness of the eternal light of heaven, rose, and
scattered the darkness, changing the gloom into a brilliant day. So too
for those who have been long shrouded in the dense gloom of sin or
sorrow there waits the same divine Light, ready to scatter their
darkness in a moment, if only they will draw nigh to Him. He waits for
me, ready to brighten my path, to scatter my sins and sorrows, if I will
avail myself of His love.
2. That rising Light is the Sun of
justice, Who shall exercise His justice in delivering the captive, and
in recompensing His friends a hundred, nay, a thousandfold, for every
little service done to Him. For His justice is virtually identical with
His mercy, and rejoices to employ itself in works of pity and of love.
3.
Come then, O Orient, O Sun of justice ; shine on those who sit in
darkness, on those who are enveloped in the thick mists of heathendom
and heresy. Come and enlighten their ignorance, that they may not
perish. Come and deliver them from the shadow of death, for they cannot
deliver themselves. Pour upon them such a flood of light and grace as
may guide their feet into the way of peace."
