Patrick Comerford
We are more than half-way through Advent this year and tomorrow is the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025).
At noon each day this Advent, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.
The church calendar of the Church of England today remembers Saint Lucy of Syracuse and Samuel Johnson of Lichfield, both of whom are associated with eyesight problems: Saint Lucy, according to legend, had her eyes plucked out as she was being martyred, and became the patron saint of the blind, eye illnesses, and opticians, often depicted holding her eyes on a platter; Samuel Johnson had poor eyesight, and was almost blind in his left eye from childhood, yet wrote legibly and prolifically.
My image for my Advent Calendar today is of Samuel Johnson’s statue in Lichfield among the Christmas lights in the Market Square, facing the house where he was born. My choice of hymn today is ‘See, amid the winter’s snow’ by the priest and hymnwriter Edward Caswall (1814-1878) who also wrote ‘Hark! a herald voice is calling’, the Advent carol I chose last Saturday (6 December 2025).
See, amid the winter’s snow,
born for us on earth below,
see the tender Lamb appears,
promised from eternal years.
Refrain:
Hail, thou ever blessed morn!
Hail, redemption’s happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
‘Christ is born in Bethlehem.’
Lo, within a manger lies
He who built the starry skies;
He who, throned in height sublime,
sits amid the cherubim! [Refrain]
Say, ye holy shepherds, say,
what’s your joyful news today?
Wherefore have ye left your sheep
on the lonely mountain steep? [Refrain]
‘As we watched at dead of night,
Lo! we saw a wondrous light;
angels singing ‘Peace on earth’
told us of the Saviour’s birth.’ [Refrain]
Sacred Infant, all divine,
what a tender love was thine,
thus to come from highest bliss
down to such a world as this! [Refrain]
Teach, O teach us, Holy Child,
by thy face so meek and mild,
teach us to resemble thee,
in thy sweet humility! [Refrain]
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