DAY 17

KEEP SILENT!

“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”

(Psalm 46:10)

One familiar song declares Christmas as the “most wonderful time of the year.”  That may be, but I would also say it is one of the noisiest times of the year.  By noise, I mean not only sound, but busyness too.  People run from this Christmas party to the next.  They rush around town looking for just the right gift.  Even Christmas music has becomes the background sound to a busy life.

I have come to love the song “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent.” It is not a song I was familiar with until adulthood.  As the song rolls along and the words and music flow over me, it creates in me what the title and first line states.  By the fourth stanza, I am there with the seraph and cherubim crying out, “Alleluia!”  But this shout of praise comes after my heart is quieted before “Christ our God” who “to earth descended.”  With “fear and trembling,” I stand in silence before my Lord.

In this Advent season, take time to be silent before our Lord who came to be our King of kings.

LET ALL MORTAL FLESH KEEP SILENT

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
set your minds on things eternal,
for with blessing in his hand
Christ our God to earth descended,
come our homage to command.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
once upon the earth he stood;
Lord of lords we now perceive him
in the body and the blood.
He has given to all the faithful
his own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank, the host of heaven
stream before him on the way,
as the Light of Light, descending
from the realms of endless day,
comes, the powers of hell to vanquish,
clears the gloom of hell away.

At his feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim with sleepless eye
veil their faces to his presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry:
“Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, Lord Most High!”