Hush…. It’s time!
Time to finish the buying and wrapping, time to set our troubles aside. Our cares will still be there next week, after all, and we don’t want to miss the peace that’s promised by the season.
One Christmas hymn keeps floating through my mind, helping me focus. A friend sent me this instrumental version on video (it’s her playing the autoharp) and it’s hauntingly beautiful. I’ve sung it so often, the words come to me wrapped in the tune.
Click the picture to hear Lucille Reilly playing her arrangement of “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” at Montview Presbyterian, Denver. Image clipped from Youtube video. Song begins at 20:02.
Here’s the first verse in case it’s not familiar:
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.
Ponder nothing earthly-minded,
For with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
“Let all mortal flesh keep silence.” That’s you and me—“mortal flesh.” Be silent and stand in awe and godly fear. Imagine: God took on our mortal (ie, subject to death) flesh … so he could die.
Maybe that’s why this song that originally (and still is) sung on Holy Saturday, was made a Christmas hymn. Both life and death (a death that leads to life!) are part of the promise of his birth.
The words are drawn from the Eucharistic Prayer in the ancient Liturgy of St. James. Here’s the second verse:
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 heavenly food.
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 heavenly food.
I love that. Our Lord’s incarnation tied to the food we receive from the altar at Mass.
And so, as Christmas nears, Hush! Await his approach in reverent fear … and approach him with grateful praise. Join your voice with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, as we read in verse 3:
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!
Cherubim, with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!
(Source: Musixmatch)
May your Christmas be filled with holy reverence and great joy!
© 2020 Sarah Christmyer
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You can find Lucille’s music and more about her at Lucille Reilly: the Dulcimer Lady.
Thank you Sarah for sharing your friend Lucille’s rendition of that beautiful and fitting arrangement, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”
It truly put my heart and mind in the true sense of honoring our Lord at Christmas. I can understand why you were singing these words throughout the day. It is a spiritual haunting arrangement with words that touch our very souls.
May your Christmas be filled with peace and true joy.