The hymn "Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming", with its quiet, understated intensity, beautifully captures the spirit of Advent. The song starts out recalling Isaiah's humble image of the shoot from the stump of Jesse and the people waiting in darkness:
Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung,
of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a flow’ret bright, amid the cold of winter,
when half-spent was the night.
Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind . . .
We then turn our attention to the Blessed Mother, and see that tender shoot come forth in the person of Jesus:
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
when half-spent was the night.
Finally, we are shown how God uses that seemingly small beginning to bring about great things:
This flow’r, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
dispels with glorious splendor the darkness ev’rywhere.
True man, yet very God; from sin and death he saves us
and lightens ev’ry load.
Today, the last day of Advent, the night is more than half-spent, and we wait in joyful anticipation of God Himself, Emmanuel, coming among us in the form of a little human baby. O come, o come Emmanuel!
(See also: We all get the conversion experience we need: “The Christmas Conversion of St.Thérèse” http://goo.gl/YSc1dh)
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