O Oriens,

O Oriens, splendor lucis ætérnæ, et sol justítiæ : veni, et illúmina sedéntes in ténebris, et umbra mortis.


O Morning Star, splendour of Eternal light and Sun of Righteousness: come and illumine those sitting in darkness and the shadow of Death.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

The British Isles of course have many a relic of its pagan past with the great standing stone circles constructed so beautifully mathematically as astronomical and astrological calendars. Among these great prehistoric edifices, stand Maes Howe in Orkney and Newgrange on the banks of the Boyne in the Republic of Ireland. Newgrange was built about 3250 BC, Maes Howe in about 2670 BC

These latter two are tumuli - tombs of of local families of an age so distant that it barely seems possible. Certainly we are looking at folk contemporaneous with the great Jewish Patriarchs, if not a little before.

And yet Newgrange is beautifully constructed with a tiny window so precisely aligned that, as the Sun rises on the Winter solstice itself, the light penetrates this window filling the entire tomb with light for only a few minutes. That radiant light then abruptly shuts out. This event only ever happens at Sunrise on the Shortest Day of the Year. For Maes Howe, it is Sunset on the Winter Solstice when this phenomenon happens. Did these prehistoric folk enter the tomb at this time to be with their ancestors? Or was this light for the benefit of the dead alone? I'm afraid I'm not sufficiently well-read to know.

However, this is just a marvellous example of how the signature of God has been written across the centuries of human consciousness. For here we are, as Christians, finding each year in our liturgy one day of Light in the Darkness. All too briefly, Christmas day is over and we are plunged back into the sameyness of our existence.

The trouble is that we can be tempted to see this light as being samey. We can become clouded and obstructed by the cares of the secular Christmas that the little windows into our souls become blocked up so that the light of Christ does not penetrate into the depths of our being? God gave us Christmas to remember that he has not forgotten us. This world may be dark, but he remembers His mercy, which is probably why the End of Days hasn't happened yet, so that we may have the benefit of seeing the beauty of God's creative Light in our lives.