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| Medieval illuminated hymnal with a Czech version of Rorate song |
(Or why to sing rorate rather than carols in Advent)
Advent is a precious, beautiful and meaningful period of preparation for Christmas. In its true form it is a time of contemplation and self-examination and thus very important for our psychological and spiritual health. A genuine Advent is sine qua non for truly joyful celebration of Christmas. How can we truly rejoice in Christmas if we are celebrating it from the beginning of Advent? In every store, supermarket and shopping-mall we are bombarded ad nauseam with Christmas music from as early as Thanksgiving. In fact it is an emotional ploy to manipulate us into compulsive shopping. And our culture went along it. Some families are putting up Christmas trees already before the first Sunday of Advent! And even in many churches one could hear carol tunes deep into the Advent season. But Advent is not watered-down version of Christmas! Our ancestors of faith knew better. In Advent they used to get up early before daybreak and went to church to sing Rorate Plainsong and say their Advent pensive prayers. The true joy of Christmas is unthinkable without self-reflection and preparation of Advent, just like the Easter is not the same without Lent. Replacing reflective Advent with a stretched-out and diluted prelude to Christmas does not make Christmas better, in fact it preempts Christmas and steals away its true joy. At Rutgers we strive to resist the dictate of shallow ideology of consumerism and live our faith contra-culturally.
Rorate Founding Biblical verse is Isaiah 45:8
RORATE caeli desuper
et nubes pluant iustum
aperiatur terra
et germinet salvatorem
et iustitia oriatur simul
ego Dominus creavi eum.
Open up, O heavens,
and pour out righteousness.
Let the earth open wide
so salvation can sprout up
together with righteousness.
I, the LORD, created it.
Advent is a precious, beautiful and meaningful period of preparation for Christmas. In its true form it is a time of contemplation and self-examination and thus very important for our psychological and spiritual health. A genuine Advent is sine qua non for truly joyful celebration of Christmas. How can we truly rejoice in Christmas if we are celebrating it from the beginning of Advent? In every store, supermarket and shopping-mall we are bombarded ad nauseam with Christmas music from as early as Thanksgiving. In fact it is an emotional ploy to manipulate us into compulsive shopping. And our culture went along it. Some families are putting up Christmas trees already before the first Sunday of Advent! And even in many churches one could hear carol tunes deep into the Advent season. But Advent is not watered-down version of Christmas! Our ancestors of faith knew better. In Advent they used to get up early before daybreak and went to church to sing Rorate Plainsong and say their Advent pensive prayers. The true joy of Christmas is unthinkable without self-reflection and preparation of Advent, just like the Easter is not the same without Lent. Replacing reflective Advent with a stretched-out and diluted prelude to Christmas does not make Christmas better, in fact it preempts Christmas and steals away its true joy. At Rutgers we strive to resist the dictate of shallow ideology of consumerism and live our faith contra-culturally.
Rorate Founding Biblical verse is Isaiah 45:8
RORATE caeli desuper
et nubes pluant iustum
aperiatur terra
et germinet salvatorem
et iustitia oriatur simul
ego Dominus creavi eum.
Open up, O heavens,
and pour out righteousness.
Let the earth open wide
so salvation can sprout up
together with righteousness.
I, the LORD, created it.
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