“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” isn’t the only Advent hymn.

I’m willing to bet that you have heard the achingly gorgeous “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”. The melody that we use today is called “Picardy”, a French medieval folk melody, but the hymn is ANCIENT, from the earliest days of the Holy Catholic Church. The words are from the Cherubic Hymn (sung at the Offertory) of the ANCIENT Rite of St. James the Less, son of Alphaeus, Apostle, Bishop of Jerusalem, and cousin of Our Lord. We’re talking the first DECADES after Our Lord’s Passion, Resurrection and Ascension. St. James the Less, Bishop of Jerusalem, was martyred in ARSH 62, and this is from his Rite.

The title comes from Habakkuk 2: 20.

When is the last time you quoted Habakkuk?

But the Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.
Dominus autem in templo sancto suo : sileat a facie ejus omnis terra!

Here are the Benedictine nuns of Gower, Missouri, the selfsame community founded by Mother Wilhelmina Lancaster, found incorrupt last year, singing this exquisite Advent hymn off their CD, which I recommend that everyone have in their collection. These nuns truly give us all a foretaste of heaven with their pure, clear voices.

Please do contemplate these heart-rending verses as the Sisters’ voices draw us nearer to heaven, and to Our Eucharistic Lord even now, during this all-too-brief season of Advent.

Mother Wilhelmina Lancaster, pray for me, pray for us.

Lord Jesus Christ, in the crib, on the Cross, and in the Most Holy Eucharist, have mercy on us.

---

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly-minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the Body and the Blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His Own Self for heav’nly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the pow’rs of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six-winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the Presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
“Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!”

Ann,

ICYMI, in yesterday’s Taylor Marshall podcast titled, “Secret Letters? Vigano says Pope Benedict did NOT resign,” in approximately minute 18, Taylor Marshall states that he put up a Twitpoll to his followers, inquiring whether they believe Benedict validly resigned. He is shocked — shocked! — that the poll revealed that 83% of respondents are Benevacantists. [I’m shocked it isn’t higher. —AB]

This reminds me of your recent observations of recent trends at LifeSite, with both editorial content and comment sections making clear that John-Henry Westen’s audience is speaking loudly and clearly that anomalies in the papal situation are real and must be addressed. Your statement that LifeSite should listen to its audience and take a stand might be well applied to Dr. Marshall.

Considering the audience (assuming Marshall’s particular audience was the primary group responding to said poll), I am surprised that his poll showed this high number, but also not surprised. The truth is a lion, and this is another data point that people who are paying attention are “getting it,” despite the limited discourse the approved gatekeepers have permitted over the past 12 years.

“Slowly at first, then all at once.”

God bless,

J

Okay, folks. O Come, O Come Emmanuel is the only song anyone is allowed to sing until Christmas Eve Night!

Just kidding. But seriously, this is the penitential season of Advent. Christmas is from December 25th until Candlemas on February 2nd. Don’t lose sight of this!

---

With each passing year, the motif of desperate pleading for Christ to come grows stronger.

This isn’t the mere “Advent hymn” or “Christmas song” of a dozen years ago (before the Bergoglian Antipapacy), now is it? Not if you’re paying any attention. The notion of ransoming captives and mourning in lonely exile here isn’t external to our experience anymore the way it used to be.

And remember, this song has three simultaneous motifs: The Israel of the Old Covenant, before the Incarnation and Nativity of Our Lord; the New and Eternal Israel that is the Holy Catholic Church, which emerged from the side of Christ Crucified and was formally established at Pentecost, to which Our Eucharistic Lord comes at every Mass; and the Second Coming of Our Lord in Glory at the Consummation of the world and the New Jerusalem.

This song has nothing, and I mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the atheist state founded in the Middle East in the late 1940’s, nor does it have ANYTHING to do with the pseudo-religion based on the Talmud that is commonly called “Judaism” today. This song is exclusively about the Catholic Church: seminal and anticipated, extant, and yet to come in fully consummated triumph.

Three versions. Original Latin, Bluegrass and Instrumental. Bluegrass is by definition a mournful, longing sound, and the Cello in the instrumental selection likewise carries the mournful, pleading sound.

Latin:

English:

Instrumental: