Long lay the world in sin and error piningIt was the "Hear, the Angel Voices" part at first. Because you know, I Work with them. They're awesome. They celebrated the night Christ was born, the choirs of the heavens filled the sky with the music of the spheres.
til he appeared
and the soul felt its worth
a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
Fall on your knees
Oh Hear the Angel voices,
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born.
But the more I thought about it, the more the song made sense to me on a deeper level. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, til he appeared, and the soul felt its worth. It's the night the Logos took flesh to come down to the material world and show mankind once and for all there is no separation between Mankind and Godkind, that we are family, all twinkling manifestations of Light in Extension, and the darkness of the world cannot ever change that, no matter what we do.
I talk a lot about how the Enneads of Plotinus showed me how the point of the Neoplatonists was to reclaim the divine race of humanity, to discover its eternal value. That's the song's central theme. And I got it, that thrill of hope, and weary with the state of things in this world, I too rejoiced. Yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
So we've made it through the darkest part of the year, and now the days will grow longer, and the Sun shall return to us again. Each day, there will be more light. PLVS LVX. More Light.
I don't know how you celebrated making it through the longest night this year. I do know a substantial number of you readers don't celebrate the birth of Christ as the most awesomest thing evar, and I understand the many reasons for that.
But however you celebrated this year, I hope it was beautiful.
Now, get ready, because here comes the Sun.
Fr RO, I always look forward to your writings. My holiday was good, but reading this really picked up my spirits. Thank you so much for this and all of your other writings, and your support while I was deployed to Iraq. Just in case no one else says it, you're pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteThere's something about the power in that song, my mom and I actually had a lovely moment v. earnestly singing it together in the car this year which is something we generally Do Not Do. Thanks for your continued Experiment support!
ReplyDelete"I talk a lot about how the Enneads of Plotinus showed me how the point of the Neoplatonists was to reclaim the divine race of humanity, to discover its eternal value."
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post, especially this line right here. I fully resonate with it and thus agree.