on Sinai's height
Oh, come, oh, come, our Lord of might,
Who to your tribes on Sinai's height
In ancient times gave holy law,
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!Going to Jordan last year gave me a much, much better understanding of the geography of the region (there's something about standing on Mount Nebo at the spot (apparently) where Moses saw the Promised Land and having your guide say whilst gesticulating with this arm "over there is Israel, Galilee is up there [waving right], Egypt down there [waving left]" for it all to come together in one's head.
So I can now totally picture tribes wandering about mountains and valleys and hearing and seeing God in the cloud. (For whatever definition of God we want to give at this moment in time!)
[Photo is of Mt Sinai]
Unthanks
Oh, come O Rod of Jesse's stem,
From ev'ry foe deliver them
That trust your mighty pow'r to save;
Bring them in vict'ry through the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!No, I'm not spending Advent unthanking people!
But I did go to see the wonderful
Unthanks on Monday night. (Apparently the surname, which is Northumbrian, is something to do with people who occupied land illegally!). They've moved on from the two girls with a couple of backing singers/instrumentalists which served them so well in their early days to a larger band with more complex arrangements. Took me a long time to get used to it (just call me trad - and I love unaccompanied singing) but it was a great gig.
And blimey, how do they make clog dancing look sexy?
Labels: Advent, Advent 2009
Advent blogging - Day 2
Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
It is I think perhaps no secret that my favorite church season is Lent. But Advent's pretty good too. And not just because of all the nice purple.
So once again I'm going to attempt to be daily blogging through Advent. As you can see it's going to be a bit of a challenge - I'm actually writing this on Day 3! But let's see where it takes me.
I went to the 8am service yesterday* which sadly meant I didn't get to sing 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel' one of my most loved hymns (it's that eerieness in the tune isn't it) which I spotted was on the playlist for the main service. I hope we'll sing it again at some point during Advent.
*Which is really far too early on a Sunday morning and not something I normally do (in fact I think I've only ever been once before) but I had a busy day ahead of me. However I was obviously not quite awake as I was half way down my street before I realised that the blurriness around me was not due to grogginess or dirty glasses, but to the fact that I had completely forgotten to put my glasses on at all. Oh dear. Never done that before.
[The picture is The Sea near Palavas, after Gustave Courbert 1850-1900 (National Gallery)]
Labels: Advent, Advent 2009
1st Sunday of Advent 2009
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Labels: Advent, Advent 2009
Memos to Self
"When trying to grill salmon under a grill it's a good idea to turn the grill on if you don't want to be surpised by cold fish when the timer goes off."
"The metal that the pans rest on on the hob will be hot after you've cooked a pan on it."
"Be careful when opening eBay parcels with scissors - you may cut the fabric."
"There are two 7.30s in a day and if you don't turn the alarm off after the first one (or accidently lift the button up again) it will go off again 12 hours later and there will be a strange beeping that will slowly seep into your consciousness and then annoy you till you realise it isn't actually coming from a car alarm outside but rather somewhere in the house and finally track it down to your bedroom."
Oh yes...it's been one of those days.
On women
It's a miracle really that not only have women continued to go to church through the centuries but that we outnumber men in them by quite some way.....
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica: “As the philosopher says, ‘Woman is a misbegotten male.’ Yet it is necessary that woman was made in the first production of things as a helpmate. Not indeed as a helpmate in any other works than procreation, for in all other works man can be more efficiently helped by another man than by a woman, but as a helper in the work of generation… The woman is in a state of subjugation in the original order of things.
Wonder what Thomas Aquinas would make of the 21st Century were he to visit us now.
Wonder how many men (and indeed women) still hold his view.
New world...and old
So I've entered the digital aga - not only do I now Tweet, I also Skype (at myfirstname_mylastname if anyone's interested)
But back in the old real world - if natural yoghurt (that's been opened but kept in fridge) still smells good, tastes good and has no obvious mould after almost five weeks, it's still good to eat right? Maybe just more of those good bacteria.
Fingers crossed.
ETA: "digital aga" - now there's a concept. I meant digital age of course but it was too good a typo just to edit.
