adventus-christi
Adventus Christi
An Advent journey combining seasonal music and spiritual reflections.
Adventus Christi is a devotional guide intended to help prepare our hearts, minds, and souls for the coming of Jesus on Christmas day. At the same time, it is an opportunity to experience some of the most beloved songs of the season in new, spiritually valuable ways.
For each week of Advent, scholar, writer, and musician Junius Johnson pairs a musical selection with a reflection based upon it. The complete texts of the reflections, as well as lyrics for each song, may be found here.
Adventus Christis is a devotional resource intended to attend to the words of these familiar songs, both sacred and secular. Let them carry you to the familiar places. After each reflection, I invite you to listen to the musical presentation of that song. As you hear the familiar melodies, reflect, and recover the deep connections to spiritual truths that lie waiting to surprise us around every corner in this magical season. - Junius Johnson
Prologue
An introduction by Dr. Junius Johnson
Reflection
“We find ourselves once again in the season of Advent, a season filled with contradiction. Advent is a time of wonder and miracles: we have often felt through the ages that the heavens are prone to presage important events by strange signs.
These occurrences remain opaque to most, but the wise, if they are attentive, are able to tell that something big is coming, and that they must act accordingly. Rarely can they say what the appearance of a comet or an eclipse might mean: is it war, famine, the rise or fall of an empire?
And with the Christmas story, that oft-repeated story of a major change in history signified by strange signs and wonders is literally true: there was a star, and wise men did follow it. There were angel choirs, and then, incongruously, unexpectedly, a rose among thorns, a child in a manger.
Advent is the season of the wonders that precede the miracle of miracles."
Advent 1: The Pre-Existing Word
“Of the Father’s Love Begotten”
Reflection
“This is the great hymn of the pre-incarnate Christ.As you follow the haunting, chant-like melody, remember that praise is not just exuberant wildness: it is serious business; it is right that we strive to sew our voices into the choirs of the heaven-taught, who know, as well as a creature can know, how to praise the depths of eternal majesty and sempiternal mystery.”
Advent 2: The Incarnate Word
“Coventry Carol”
Reflection
“The Coventry Carol is a challenging song for this occasion. Its matter is the holocaust of the infants. We identify with Rachel, weeping for her child. Yet we err, for we are Herod.
But in Christ there is solace for the world. Though the light does not excuse the infanticide of our hearts; it forgives it and heals it. We are not left as orphans.”
Advent 3: God So Loved the World
“O Sacred Head”
Reflection
“The last occasion accused us for the depth of our sins; now we come to the collision of divine judgment and human judgment that Christ came to culminate, the sword that Christ came to bring to earth. Yet this song is a song of love. It is the song of a love so deep that it would undergo all for the sake of the beloved.”
Advent 4: The Fading Memory of the Word
“Carol of the Bells”
Reflection
“I love the idea of church bells: I love the acknowledgement that their mysteries are not secret, but rather public, mysteries that hide, if they hide, in plain sight. This is not a sacred song: its tones never rise higher than a “Merry Christmas.” Yet the bells are the bells of the Church; they call God’s people to worship the Eucharistic Lord born that day. “Christ-mas”, that is, the body of Christ, is here!
Epilogue: Christmas Eve
“White Christmas”
Reflection
“As we close our season of reflection, it remains for us to repent; that is, to tread again the path that was walked here, to return from White Christmas to the bells and back to the Church, the cathedral of joy. The ageless one, gleaming babe and glorious man, very God and desire of nations, stands there with arms stretched wide in a triumphant transformation of the posture of crucifixion. In so doing he transforms our deepest being into joy. And so I, taking my cue from the great ones who have walked among us, will close by offering you one simple phrase: God is with us.”
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