O Come, O Dayspring!
This Sunday’s title is Dayspring, and so we add our voices to generations of God’s people who cry out, “O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer; O Sun of justice, now draw near/Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadow put to flight.” Through the centuries, as people waited in the darkness of life for the Messiah, the prophets spoke words of encouragement to them: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord… will arise upon you” (Isaiah 60). Generations later St. John would write of Jesus saying, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1). For Christians, Jesus is the Light of the World, our Dayspring, the Sun of Justice. Jesus is a light so powerful that the deepest darkness cannot snuff it out, and so in this Advent season, we pray for his light to be with us again… and always.
The Lessons & Carols tradition was established in England on Christmas Eve, 1918, in the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, England. The nine lessons, although not exactly the same each year, narrate to Christians the Christmas story. This year, the service follows our Advent theme and utilizes The Great Antiphons, which we know today as the verses to “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”. Using the titles of Jesus prophesied in the Jewish Scriptures, the antiphons count down to the incarnation of Christ and help us understand what the birth of this child truly means.