An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 25, 24 December 2025

A Nativity image in Saint Laurence’s Church, Winslow, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We have come to the last day of Advent, and today is Christmas Eve. At noon each day throughout Advent this year, I have been offering an image or two as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My images for my Advent Calendar at noon today, Christmas Eve, are of a Nativity image on the south wall in Saint Laurence’s Church, Winslow, Buckinghamshire, and of the Nativity scenes on the triptych in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral.

The carved wooden reredos in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral dates from 1895. The triptych or three-part altarpiece with high relief scenes was carved by Oskar Zwink in Oberammergau, the Bavarian town that is better known for its Passion Play. The carvings were designed in England by the Tractarian artist Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907), best known for his stained-glass windows, some of which can also be seen in the cathedral. The Church Historian, Owen Chadwick, says Kempe’s work represents ‘the Victorian zenith’ of church decoration and stained glass windows.

My choice of a carol or hymn today, on Christmas Eve, is ‘O Holy Night’, a song about the night of the birth of ‘the dear Saviour’ and frequently sung on Christmas Evel. It is based on the French poem Minuit, chrétiens, written in 1847 by Placide Cappeau and set to music by composer Adolphe Adam.

Cappeau’s poem reflects his socialist and abolitionist views. The most popular English version was translated in 1855 by an American music critic and Unitarian minister, the Revd John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893), in 1855, with some small changes to the initial melody.

For many years, the song was excluded from Catholic hymnals while critics derided Cappeau as a socialist and a drunk, and spread rumours that he was Jewish.

In the version I am sharing today, the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, sings John Rutter’s arrangement of ‘O Holy Night’.

The Nativity scene on the triptych in the Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford / Lichfield Gazette)

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till 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! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night divine! O night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by his cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the wise men from the orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our friend.
He knows our need, to our weakness no stranger.
Behold your King, before him lowly bend!
Behold your King, your King, before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and his gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother;
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise his holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we!
His power and glory evermore proclaim!
His power and glory evermore proclaim!

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 24, 23 December 2025

‘Snow had fallen, snow on snow … in the bleak midwinter’ … snow in Cloister Court, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, some years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the last days of Advent, and tomorrow is Christmas Eve. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image or two as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

I have been involved all morning with Santa's visit to the Christmas Market in Stony Stratford. It is great fun, and I am thankful it is not snowing. But in this cold winter weather and this costume, it feels like the bleak mid-winter despite all the warm responses of children and adults alike. So, my images for my Advent Calendar at noon today are of snow some years ago in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on a bleak mid-winter morning during a weekend when I had been invited to preach in the college chapel.

My choice of a carol or hymn today is ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter,’ by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). For many it is closely associated with the Service of Nine Lessons with Carols, broadcast each Christmas Eve from the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge.

Christina Rossetti’s poem, ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter,’ became popular among choirs after it was included it in the BBC broadcasts of the Service of Nine Lessons with Carols by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, using the 1911 setting by Harold Edwin Darke (1888-1976). He had once been the conductor of the choir, and his setting of the poem as a carol included his beautiful and delicate organ accompaniment.

But the tune most often associated with ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ is Cranham, composed in 1906 by Gustav Holst (1874-1934).

The poem had been published for the first time seven years earlier in Christina Rossetti’s Poetic Works, 10 years after her death. It was republished in 1906 The English Hymnal, edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams, with Holst’s setting, and it quickly became a popular Christmas carol. Today ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ is one of the most popular and best-loved carols.

Christina Rossetti was part of the Victorian arts-and-crafts movement and the pre-Raphaelite movement. She was a leading advocate of women’s rights, a campaigner against slavery and war, and a prominent member of the Anglo-Catholic movement. She wrote ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ in 1872 in answer to a request from a magazine. But, like a lot of writers, she must have been frustrated that she never saw its publication.

So it took over 30 years, more than a generation, before this poem was first sung as a Christmas carol. Ever since then, though, it has been a firm Christmas favourite, and has been recorded by the King’s Singers, Julie Andrews, the Moody Blues, the Pet Shop Boys, James Taylor, Alison Crowe, Moya Brennan, Celtic Woman, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Brightman and Loreena McKennitt.

But I still find this popularity surprising, because this is no popular, cosy, comfortable Christmas carol. Instead its images are harsh and bleak, and in the uncomfortable political climate in the world today tey are challenging and demanding once again.

‘In the bleak midwinter … snow had fallen, snow on snow’ … snow on Sidney Street, Cambridge, in front of the chapel of Sidney Sussex College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In the bleak midwinter
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone:
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter,
long ago.

Our God, heav’n cannot hold him,
nor earth sustain;
heav’n and earth shall flee away
when he comes to reign:
in the bleak midwinter
a stable place sufficed
the Lord God almighty,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for him, whom cherubim
worship night and day,
a breast full of milk
and a manger-ful of hay;
enough for him, whom angels
fall down before,
the ox and ass and camel
which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim
thronged the air;
but his mother only,
in her maiden bliss,
worshipped the beloved
with a kiss.

What can I give him,
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb;
if I were a wise man
I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him —
give my heart.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 23, 22 December 2025

Snow some years ago at the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street in Tamworth

Patrick Comerford

We are in the last days of Advent, and Christmas Day is next Thursday. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image or two as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My images for my Advent Calendar today is of snow some years ago at the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street in Tamworth and a Christmas card with the former Church of Saint Mary and Saint George in Comberford, near Lichfield and Tamworth in a watercolour by Freda Morgan (2008).

My choice of a carol or hymn today is ‘While shepherds watched their flocks’, a traditional Christmas carol said to have been written by the Irish hymn-writer and England’s Poet Laureate, the Dublin-born Nahum Tate (1652-1715). It is one of the carols we sang yesterday afternoon at the Carol Service in Saunt Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford.

The words were first published by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady in 1700 in their supplement to their New Version of the Psalms of David of 1696. It is based on the Gospel story of the angels appearing to the shepherds (see Luke 2: 8-14).

A Christmas card with the Church of Saint Mary and Saint George, Comberford, in a watercolour by Freda Morgan (2008)

While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
all seated on the ground,
the angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.

‘Fear not,’ said he (for mighty dread
had seized their troubled mind);
‘Glad tidings of great joy I bring
to you and all mankind.

‘To you in David’s town this day
is born of David’s line
a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord;
And this shall be the sign:

‘The heav’nly Babe you there shall find
to human view displayed,
all meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
and in a manger laid.’

Thus spake the seraph; and forthwith
appeared a shining throng
of angels praising God, who thus
addressed their joyful song:

‘All glory be to God on high,
and to the earth be peace;
Goodwill henceforth from heav’n to men
begin and never cease.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 22, 21 December 2025

Christmas lights in the churchyard at Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the last week of Advent, and Christmas Day is next Thursday. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is of the Christmas lights in the churchyard at Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford.

My choice of a carol or hymn today is ‘O come all ye faithful’, our closing carol at the Carol Service in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, this afternoon (4 pm, Sunday 21 December 2025).

This is one of the best-loved Christmas carols, and is sometimes known by its Latin name (Adeste Fideles), and this probably explains why it is often described as a mediaeval hymn. But while, the original author is unknown, the writer who made it popular in English was Frederick Oakeley (1802-1880), a priest in the Church of England, a canon of Lichfield Cathedral and an Oxford don for many years before following John Henry Newman into the Roman Catholic Church and becoming a canon of Westminster Cathedral.

O come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him
Born the King of Angels:

O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.

God of God,
Light of Light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
Very God,
Begotten, not created:

Refrain

Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heav’n above;
Glory to God
In the highest:

Refrain

Yea, Lord, we greet thee,
Born that happy morning,
Jesu, to thee be glory giv’n!
Word of the Father,
Now in flesh appearing:

Refrain

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 21, 20 December 2025

The Christmas decorations in the window of Peggy’s Sweet Shop on the High Street in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

There is less than a week to go to Christmas Day. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is the decorations in the window of Peggy’s Sweet Shop at 75 High Street in Stony Stratford.

My choice of a carol or hymn today is ‘Christmas Lullaby’ by John Rutter, one of the carols or hymns being sung by the choir at the Carol Service in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, tomorrow afternoon (4 pm, Sunday 21 December 2025).

Rutter wrote both ‘Christmas Lullaby’ (1989) and ‘Star Carol’ (1972) for the Bach Choir and its then conductor, Sir David Willcocks, for performance at the choir’s popular Christmas concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, London.

These events had been part of Rutter’s life since his childhood, when he attended as a member of the audience. He later became involved in making last-minute musical arrangements backstage. He composed ‘Christmas Lullaby’ as part of a commission from the Bach Choir in 1989 for the 70th birthday of their conductor Sir David Willcocks.

Clear in the darkness a light shines in Bethlehem:
Angels are singing, their sound fills the air.
Wise men have journeyed to greet their Messiah;
But only a mother and baby lie there.

‘Ave Maria, ave Maria’:
Hear the soft lullaby the angel hosts sing.
‘Ave Maria, ave Maria,
Maiden, and mother of Jesus our King’.

Where are his courtiers, and who are his people?
Why does he bear neither sceptre nor crown?
Shepherds his courtiers, the poor for his people,
with peace as his sceptre and love for his crown.

What though your treasures are not gold or incense?
Lay them before him with hearts full of love.
Praise to the Christ child, and praise to his mother
who bore us a Saviour by grace from above.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 20, 19 December 2025

Advent wreaths seen on front doors at the north end or upper end of High Street in Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

There is less than a week to go to Christmas Day. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is a collage of Advent wreaths seen on front doors at the north end or upper end of High Street in Stony Stratford.

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 5-25) tells of the birth of Saint John the Baptist. So, as my Advent hymn today, I have chosen ‘On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry’.

This is one of the few Advent hymns to take account of Saint John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Coming Christ.

This hymn, which is based on the text in Luke 3: 1-18, was originally thought to be a mediaeval Latin hymn. But it was written by Charles Coffin (1676-1749), who became the Rector of the University of Paris in 1718, and first appeared in the Paris Breviary in 1736. It was translated by the Revd John Chandler (1806-1876), Vicar of Witley in Godalming, Surrey, and one of the early translators of Latin hymns into English with Anglican churches and parishes in mind.

The tune, ‘Winchester New,’ is a melody adapted from Georg Wittwe’s Musikalishes Hand-Buch (Hamburg, 1690) by Canon William Henry Havergal (1793-1870), one of the leading figures in reforming church psalmody in the Anglican tradition.

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry by Charles Coffin

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
announces that the Lord is nigh;
awake and hearken, for he brings
glad tidings of the King of kings.

Then cleansed be every breast from sin;
make straight the way for God within;
prepare we in our hearts a home
where such a mighty guest may come.

For thou art our salvation, Lord,
our refuge and our great reward;
without thy grace we waste away
like flowers that wither and decay.

To heal the sick stretch forth thine hand,
and bid the fallen sinner stand;
shine forth, and let thy light restore
earth’s own true loveliness once more.

All praise, eternal Son, to thee,
whose advent doth thy people free;
whom with the Father we adore
and Holy Ghost for evermore.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 19, 18 December 2025

Christmas lights and greetings … from Dublin to Kuching (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024/2025)

Patrick Comerford

There is just a week to go to Christmas Day. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is of Christmas lights and greetings on O’Connell Street in Dublin and at the Grand Margherita Hotel in the heart of Kuching.

The Advent carol O come, O come, Emmanuel is a popular reworking of the seven ‘O Antiphons’. The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The first of these days, O Sapientia, or O Wisdom yesterday (17 December), is followed today (18 December) by O Adonai, by O Root of Jesse tomorrow (19 December), and then by O Key of David, O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

Today, for my Advent music, I have chosen ‘The Advent Prose – Rorate caeli desuper’, also known as Rorate coeli (or Rorate Caeli) or by the opening words of its English translation, ‘Drop down ye heavens from above’ (see Isaiah 45: 8).

In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Advent Prose is used frequently during Advent as a plainsong at the Mass and in the Divine Office.

It expresses the longings of the Patriarchs and the Prophets, and symbolically of the Church, for the coming of the Messiah. Throughout Advent it occurs daily as the versicle and response after the hymn at Vespers.

℣ Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

℟ Aperiatur terra et germinet salvatorem
Let the earth be opened and send forth a Saviour.

The text is also used as the Introit for the Fourth Sunday in Advent (next Sunday, 21 December 2025), for Wednesday in Ember Week, for the feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary today (18 December), and for votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary during Advent.

In the Anglican Communion, Rorate Coeli is included in the music for Advent (see English Hymnal (1906), No 735; New English Hymnal, No 501, and Irish Church Hymnal, No 122).

The Advent Prose came into use in the 17th century, and draws on the prophecy of Isaiah, and a Latin text with a French translation was first published in Paris in 1673.

The version in the English Hymnal, the New English Hymnal and the Irish Church Hymnal omits the original but obscure third verse based on Isaiah 16: 1:

Behold, O Lord, the affliction of thy people
and send forth him who is to come:
send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth,
from the rock of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion:
that he may take away the yoke of our captivity.

The editors replaced this with another verse drawn from Isaiah 40: 10-11.

The Advent Prose – Rorate caeli desuper

Refrain:

Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Be not wroth very sore, O Lord,
neither remember iniquity for ever:
the holy cities are a wilderness,
Sion is a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation:
our holy and our beautiful house,
where our fathers praised thee.

We have sinned, and are as an unclean thing,
and we all do fade as a leaf:
and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away;
thou hast hid thy face from us:
and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
and my servant whom I have chosen;
that ye may know me and believe me:
I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour:
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
my salvation shall not tarry:
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions:
Fear not, for I will save thee:
for I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 18, 17 December 2025

Christmas trees at our flat in Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

There is just a week to go to Christmas Eve. At noon each day this Advent, I am offering an image as part of my own ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and an Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is of the Christmas trees at our flat in Stony Stratford: one a small tree high on the wall facing down onto the High Street, the other in the flat, waiting to be full decorated and waiting in anticipation of Christmas. I know Christmas trees are a relatively recent innovation in England and Ireland, but to me they also hint at the Jesse Tree, the genealogy of the expected, promised and long-awaited Jesus, which I was discussing in my prayer diary this morning.

Today (17 December) marks the start of the week before the celebration of Christmas, the birth of Christ. At evensong, the great Song of Mary, the canticle Magnificat, has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God throughout the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the forthcoming and eagerly-anticipated Messiah, Jesus, the Son of God.

The Advent carol O come, O come, Emmanuel (New English Hymnal, No 11; Irish Church Hymnal, No 135) is a popular reworking of the seven ‘O Antiphons’, and is the opening carol at the Carol Service in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford next Sunday afternoon (4 pm, 21 December 2025).

O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, followed tomorrow (18 December) by O Adonai, then by O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Dayspring, O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

In the old Sarum rite, these were sung one day earlier, beginning on 16 December, requiring another ascription for 23 December, this being O Virgin of Virgins. Since this was clearly apposite to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not a ‘title’ of God, it was not adopted much beyond Sarum and, with the revision of the Calendar, Anglicans have adopted the more widely-used formulæ and dating.

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear:

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Wisdom from above,
who ord’rest all things through thy love;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go:

O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
who to thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
in ancient times didst give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe:

O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
from depths of hell thy people save,
and give them vict’ry o’er the grave:

O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery:

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight:

O come, Desire of Nations, bring
all peoples to their Saviour King;
thou Corner-stone, who makest one,
complete in us thy work begun:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 17, 16 December 2025

Christmas stars on a plate of mince pies in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

There are just nine days away from Christmas. 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.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is of Christmas stars on a plate of mince pies in Stony Stratford, and my choice of an Advent carol today is ‘Star Carol’ (1972) by Sir John Rutter.

Rutter wrote both ‘Christmas Lullaby’ (1989) and ‘Star Carol’ (1972) for the Bach Choir and its then conductor, Sir David Willcocks, for performance at the choir’s popular Christmas concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, London.

These events had been part of Rutter’s life since his childhood, when he attended as a member of the audience. He later became involved in making last-minute musical arrangements backstage. ‘Star Carol’ answered the brief to write a piece with a refrain that could be learnt and sung by children during the concert – they were to enter at the point ‘See his star shining bright’.

‘Star Carol’ was later published in Carols for Choirs 3 and 100 Carols for Choirs.

Star Carol by John Rutter:

Sing this night, for a boy is born in Bethlehem,
Christ our Lord in a lowly manger lies;
Bring your gifts, come and worship at his cradle,
Hurry to Bethlehem and see the son of Mary!

See his star shining bright
In the sky this Christmas night!
Follow me joyfully;
Hurry to Bethlehem and see the son of Mary!

Angels bright, come from heaven’s highest glory,
Bear the news with its message of good cheer:
‘Sing, rejoice, for a King is come to save us,
Hurry to Bethlehem to see the son of Mary!’

See his star etc …

See, he lies in his mother's tender keeping;
Jesus Christ in her loving arms asleep.
Shepherds poor, come to worship and adore him,
Offer their humble gifts before the son of Mary.

See his star etc …

Let us all pay our homage at the manger,
Sing his praise on this joyful Christmas Night;
Christ is come, bringing promise of salvation;
Hurry to Bethlehem and see the son of Mary!

See his star etc …

Star Carol lyrics © Oxford University Press

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 16, 15 December 2025

‘And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1: 14) … the east window in the south aisle of Saint Laurence’s Church, Winslow, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

There are ten days to go to Christmas, and yesterday was the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025) or Gaudete Sunday.

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.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is the four-light east window in the south aisle of Saint Laurence’s Church in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, which I visited once again at the weekend. This window by Heaton Butler & Bayne was made in 1908 and shows the Nativity, with the inscription: ‘And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1: 14).

For an Avent carol today I have chosen is ‘This is the Truth Sent from Above,’ or the Herefordshire Christmas Carol, one of several folk tunes preserved and popularised by Ralph Vaughan-Williams.

In 1909, he transcribed it from Ella Mary Leather, a collector of Herefordshire folk music, who had herself received it from a Mr W Jenkins, a folk singer from King’s Pyon.

This English folk carol was collected in the early 20th century by many English folk song collectors in Shropshire and Herefordshire and a number of variations on the tune exist, although the texts remains broadly similar.

Cecil Sharp collected an eight stanza version of the carol from Seth Vandrell and Samuel Bradley of Donninglon Wood in Shropshire, although Sharp notes that a longer version existed in a locally-printed carol book.

Vaughan Williams collected a different, Dorian mode version of the carol at King’s Pyon, Herefordshire, in July 1909 from Ella Mary Leather, a folk singer who learned the carol through the oral tradition. This version, which contains only four stanzas, is sometimes known as the Herefordshire Carol.

Vaughan Williams first published the melody in the Folk-Song Society Journal in 1909, but he credited it as being sung by a Mr W Jenkins of King’s Pyon.

Vaughan Williams later used the carol to open his Fantasia on Christmas Carols in 1912.Gerald Finzi, with permission from Vaughan Williams and Ella Leather, also used the melody as the basis of his 1925 choral work The Brightness of This Day, substituting the text for a poem by George Herbert.

The descant is by Sir Thomas Armstrong (1898-1994), who studied at the Royal College of Music with Gustav Holst and Vaughan Williams, who became a life-long friend. Later, he was the organist of Exeter Cathedral, the organist of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Principal of the Royal Academy of Music.

The text of this carol recalls the fall from grace of Adam, and the promise of redemption by Jesus. However, in almost all printed editions, several of the verses are missing. The missing text leads to a presumably unintended faux pas, with the second verse ending ‘Woman was made with man to dwell,’ and the next verse starting ‘Thus we were heirs to endless woes.’

Of course, man’s woes do not stem simply from dwelling with woman. The full version reads:

This is the truth sent from above,
The truth of God, the God of love:
Therefore don’t turn me from your door,
But hearken all, both rich and poor.

The first thing which I do relate
Is that God did man create,
The next thing which to you I’ll tell,
Woman was made with man to dwell.

Then, after this, ’twas God’s own choice
To place them both in Paradise,
There to remain, from evil free,
Except they ate of such a tree.

But they did eat, which was a sin,
And thus their ruin did begin.
Ruined themselves, both you and me,
And all of their posterity.

Thus we were heirs to endless woes,
Till God the Lord did interpose,
And so a promise soon did run,
That he would redeem us by his Son.

And at this season of the year
Our blest Redeemer did appear,
Here he did live, and here did preach,
and many thousands he did teach.

Thus he in love to us behaved,
To show us how we must be saved;
And if you want to know the way,
Be pleased to hear what he did say:

‘Go preach the Gospel,’ now he said,
‘To all the nations that are made!
And he that does believe on me,
From all his sins I'll set him free.’

O seek! O seek of God above
That saving faith that works by love!
And, if he’s pleased to grant thee this,
Thou ’rt sure to have eternal bliss.

God grant to all within this place
True saving faith, that special grace
Which to his people doth belong:
And thus I close my Christmas song.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 15, 14 December 2025

Advent wreaths on front doors along Wolverton Road in Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

There are less than two weeks left in Advent this year and today is the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025) or Gaudete Sunday.

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.

My image for my Advent Calendar today is a collage of wreaths on front doors along Wolverton Road in Stony Stratford and on ‘Gaudete Sunday’ for an Avent carol I have chosen Gaudete! gaudete! Christus est natus, which reached No 14 in the British charts with Steeleye Span in the early 1970s.

This song, which was popular in the early 1970s, and I first heard it around the same time as I was introduced to English folk rock while I was in the Midlands and writing for the Lichfield Mercury. On Gaudete Sunday, I think the story of the song is worth telling once again.

The notes on the album sleeve say:

Mist takes the morning path to wreath the willows -
Rejoice, rejoice -
small birds sing as the early rising monk takes to his sandals -
Christ is born of the Virgin Mary –
cloistered, the Benedictine dawn threads timelessly the needle’s eye –
rejoice.

Steeleye Span was formed in 1969, and they often performed as the opening act for Jethro Tull. A year after recording Below the Salt, it came as a surprise to many when they had a Christmas hit single with Gaudete, when it made No 14 in the charts in 1973.

This a capella motet, sung entirely in Latin, is neither representative of Steeleye Span’s repertoire nor of the album. Yet this was their first big breakthrough and it brought them onto Top of the Pops for the first time.

It is one of only three top 50 hits to be sung in Latin. The others are two recordings of Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem by Sarah Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston in 1986, and by the then 12-year-old Charlotte Church in 1998.

Gaudete may have been composed in the 16th century, but may date from the late mediaeval period. The song was published in Piae Cantiones, a collection of Finnish and Swedish sacred songs in 1582.

The Latin text is a typical mediaeval song of praise, following the standard pattern of the time – a uniform series of four-line stanzas, each preceded by a two-line refrain (in the early English carol this was known as the burden).

The reference in verse 3, which puzzled many fans at the time, is to the east gate of the city in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 44: 2). The gate is a traditional symbol of the Virgin Mary.

Since the mid-1970s, Steeleye Span often include Gaudete as a concert encore, and it was published in 1992 in the New Oxford Book of Carols.



The original is here: Gaudete by Steeleye Span.

A more recent recording is available here from the ‘World Tour’ 35th Anniversary DVD.

There are other arrangements by Michel McGlynn, recorded by Anuna, and an arrangement by Bob Chilcott which is part of the Advent and Christmas repertoire of the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

Let us rejoice in good memories, let us rejoice that Christmas is coming, and in the midst of the present gloom let us rejoice that the coming of Christ holds out the promise of hope, the promise of his Kingdom, the promise that even in darkness the light of Christ shines on us all.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!

Tempus adest gratiæ
Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætiticiæ
Devote reddamus.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!

Deus homo factus est
Natura mirante,
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!

Ezechielis porta
Clausa pertransitur,
Unde Lux est orta
Salus invenitur.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!

Ergo nostra contio
Psallat jam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino:
Salus Regi nostro.

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

The time of grace has come
that we have desired;
let us devoutly return
joyful verses.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

God has become man,
and nature marvels;
the world has been renewed
by Christ who is King.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

The closed gate of Ezekiel
has been passed through;
whence the light is born,
salvation is found.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

Therefore let our gathering
now sing in brightness,
let it give praise to the Lord:
Greetings to our King.

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 14, 13 December 2025

Samuel Johnson amid the Christmas lights in the Market Square, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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]

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 13, 12 December 2025

Santa’s workshop in the window of the Vaults Bar at the Bull Hotel on the High Street in Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are half-way through Advent this year and the week began with the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 December 2025). Yet I am sure many of us still have lists that need to be revised, presents that have still not been bought are wrapped, and cards that have yet to be sent.

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. Most of the windows in shops on the High Street in Stony Stratford have taken the theme of Christmas sweets, which was also the theme in the town’s Lantern Parade (29 November 2025), just before Adent began.

My image today is Santa’s workshop, depicted in the window of the Vaults Bar at the Bull Hotel on the High Street in Stony Stratford, Stony Stratford.

My choice today is not so much an Advent hymn or carol today but a song that captures the sweet childish joy of anticipating and waiting for Santa at Christmas time.

‘Santa Claus is coming to town’ was written by J Fred Coots (1897-1985) and Henry Gillespie (1898-1975) and it was first recorded by Harry Reser and His Orchestra in 1934.

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He’s making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you are sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!

O! You better watch out!
You better not cry.
Better not pout, I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town.

He’s making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!

O! You better watch out!
You better not cry.
Better not pout, I’m telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 12, 11 December 2025

Advent wreaths in Market Square and in Church Street, Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

We are half-way through Advent this year and the week began with the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 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 Christmas cracker I pulled at lunch in Wolverton yesterday with clerical colleagues in the Milton Keynes Deanery included this one-liner: ‘Why is it getting harder to buy Christmas calendars? It’s because their days are numbered.’

My image for my Advent Calendar today is a collage of Advent Wreaths on my neighbours’ houses on Church Street and in Market Square in Stony Stratford.

My choice of an Advent hymn or carol yesterday was the ‘Sussex Carol’, one of the carols or hymns the Choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church is rehearsing in Stony Stratford this Advent. So today I have chosen the ‘Wexford Carol’, which has similar words, a similar tune, and a parallel story.

‘The Wexford Carol’ is said to date from the 12th century. It is one of the oldest-known Irish carols and is also one of the oldest surviving Christmas carols in the European tradition. Many musicians and listeners find this carol is unique and believe it has a distinctly Irish character.

The carol is thought to have originated in Co Wexford, but there are many traditions about this poem and song. For many years it was said that only men should sing it, although since it gained a new popularity from the 1990s on, many popular female artists have also recorded it since it gained a new popularity from the 1990s onward.

The Wexford Carol found new attention in the early 20th century due to the work of Dr William Henry Grattan Flood (1857-1928), who was the organist and musical director at Saint Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, and the author of The History of the Diocese of Ferns (1916). According to the Revd Joseph Ranson, in a paper in The Past (1949), this carol was discovered by Grattan Flood in Co Wexford. He transcribed the carol from a local singer, and it was published in 1928, the year of his death, as No 14 in the Oxford Book of Carols, edited by Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The carol was quickly included in collections of carols and Christmas poems around the world. It is sometimes known as the ‘Enniscorthy Carol,’ and was recorded under that title by the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on a Christmas recording in 1997. It is also known by its first verse, ‘Good people all this Christmas time.’

The New Oxford Book Of Carols, in a detailed footnote, says: Grattan-Flood ‘lived in Enniscorthy from 1895 until his death, and […] took down the words and tune from a local singer; after revising the text, he sent the carol to the editors of The Oxford Book of Carols, who printed it as the ‘Wexford Carol’.’ However, the note continues with more detail showing the text to be English in origin, and verses 1, 2, 4, are 5 are from William Henry Shawcross’s Old Castleton Christmas Carols. Certainly, the Irish-language version seems to be a translation from English, as it is unlikely that any carol was written in Irish in English-speaking Co Wexford.

The Wexford Carol is often associated with the Kilmore Carols from Kilmore, Co Wexford, and it is often attributed to Bishop Luke Wadding of Ferns and his collection of carols, first published in Ghent in 1684. Wadding’s little book had the lengthy title: A small garland of pious and godly songs composed by a devout man, for the solace of his friends and neighbours in their afflictions. The sweet and the sower, the nettle and the flower, the thorne and the rose, this garland compose.

Luke Wadding (not to be confused with his kinsman, the 17th-century Franciscan theologian from Waterford of the same name), whose family came from Ballycogley Castle, Co Wexford, was the Catholic bishop of Ferns, and lived in Wexford town. His book contains some religious ‘posies’ or poems written for the disinherited gentry of Co Wexford as well as 11 Christmas songs, two of which are sung to this day in Kilmore.

A similar carol is found in Revd William Devereux’s A New Garland Containing Songs for Christmas (1728). Father William Devereux (1696-1771), from Tacumshane, was Parish Priest of Drinagh, near Wexford, in 1730-1771, and wrote several carols.

The Wexford Carol is sometimes confused too with ‘The Sussex Carol,’ also referred to by its first line: ‘On Christmas night all Christians sing’, which I discussed in my ‘Advent Calendar’ series yesterday.

Kilmore Quay … ‘The Wexford Carol’ is often associated with the Kilmore Carols from Kilmore, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Wexford Carol

Good people all, this Christmas-time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done,
In sending His beloved Son.
With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas Day:
In Bethlehem upon that morn
There was a blessed Messiah born.

The night before that happy tide
The noble Virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town.
But mark how all things came to pass;
From every door repelled alas!
As long foretold, their refuge all
Was but an humble ox’s stall.

There were three wise men from afar
Directed by a glorious star,
And on they wandered night and day
Until they came where Jesus lay,
And when they came unto that place
Where our beloved Messiah was,
They humbly cast them at his feet,
With gifts of gold and incense sweet.

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep;
To whom God’s angels did appear,
Which put the shepherds in great fear.
“Prepare and go,” the angels said,
“To Bethlehem, be not afraid;
For there you’ll find, this happy morn,
A princely Babe, sweet Jesus born.”

With thankful heart and joyful mind,
The shepherds went the Babe to find,
And as God’s angel had foretold,
They did our Saviour Christ behold.
Within a manger He was laid,
And by his side the Virgin Maid,
As long foretold, there was a blessed Messiah born.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 11, 10 December 2025

Posters on the notice board at Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, for seasonal music and services (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

We are almost half-way through Advent this year and the week began with the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 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.

As the choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford continues to rehearse this evening for the Advent and Christmas services, my Advent Calendar photograph today is of the posters on the church notice board with details of the seasonal music and services in Stony Stratford and Calverton.

My choice of an Advent hymn or carol today is the ‘Sussex Carol’, one of the carols or hymns the Choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church is rehearsing in Stony Stratford this Advent.

The ‘Sussex Carol’ is sometimes known by its opening words ‘On Christmas night all Christians sing’. Its words were first published by Luke Wadding (1628-1687), Bishop of Ferns (1683-1687). He included it in his collection Small Garland of Pious and Godly Songs (1684).

Both the text and the tune were discovered and written down by Cecil Sharp in Buckland, Gloucestershire, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, who heard it being sung by Harriet Verrall of Monk’s Gate in Sussex. The tune written down by Vaughan Williams was published in 1919.

The carol is often included in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge, where it is performed in arrangements by either David Willcocks or Philip Ledger, both former directors of music at the chapel. Willcocks’s arrangement, which we are rehearsing in Stony Stratford, appears in the first OUP Carols for Choirs.

Wexford Friary, where Bishop Luke Wadding, author of ‘On Christmas night all Christians sing’, was buried in 1687 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

On Christmas night all Christians sing,
To hear the news the angels bring,
News of great joy, news of great mirth,
News of our merciful King’s birth.

Then why should men on earth be so sad,
Since our Redeemer made us glad,
When from our sin he set us free,
All for to gain our liberty?

When sin departs before his grace,
Then life and health come in its place;
Angels and men with joy may sing,
All for to see the new-born King.

All out of darkness we have light,
Which made the angels sing this night:
‘Glory to God and peace to men,
Now and for evermore, Amen!’

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 10, 9 December 2025

‘If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing … He surely could have had it, ’cause he was the King!’ … small Christmas decorations on a shelf in the Swinfen Harris Church Hall, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

We are more than a third of the way through Advent this year and the week began with the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 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.

As I am speaking about the work of the architect Edward Swinfen Harris to the Wolverton and District Archaeological and Historical Society in Stony Stratford Library this afternoon (2:30, 9 December 2025), my choice of Advent Calendar images today come from the Swinfen Harris Church Hall, beside the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford. And my choice of an Advent hymn or carol today is ‘I Wonder as I Wander’, one of the carols or hymns the Choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford is rehearsing this Advent.

This folk hymn that has its origins in a song fragment collected in 1933 by the American folklorist and singer John Jacob Niles (1892-1980). He was known as the ‘Dean of American Balladeers,’ and had an important influence on the American folk music revival in the 1950s and 1960s, with Odetta, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan and many others recording his songs.

While Niles was in the town of Murphy in Appalachian North Carolina, he attended a fundraising meeting held by travelling evangelists who had been driven out of town by the police, and heard this song sung by Annie Morgan.

She repeated the fragment seven times in exchange for a quarter for each performance, and Niles left with ‘three lines of verse, a garbled fragment of melodic material – and a magnificent idea.’ Based on this fragment, Niles composed ‘I Wonder as I Wander’, and then extended the melody to four lines and the lyrics to three stanzas. He completed his composition on 4 October 1933 and first performed the song on 19 December 1933 in Brasstown, North Carolina. It was first published in 1934.

Barbra Streisand sang it on A Christmas Album (1967), and other recordings are by Mary Travers of Peter, Paul, and Mary, Vanessa Williams, the BBC Symphony Chorus, the Cambridge Singers and the Choir of Eton College.

Ian Bradley, Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History at the University of St Andrews, the ‘clean, haunting melody … maintains the open-air atmosphere and sense of wistful wandering conjured up in the first line.’

Benjamin Britten published a setting of the song in 1934, and other arrangements have been written by Luciano Berio and by Carl Rütti for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The choir in Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford is rehearsing the arrangement by John Rutter, first written for the Cambridge Singers.

‘If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing … He surely could have had it, ’cause he was the King!’ … Christmas decorations in the Swinfen Harris Church Hall at the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus, the Saviour, did come for to die.
For poor ornery people like you and like I:
I wonder as I wander, Out under the sky.

When Mary birthed Jesus, ’twas in a cow’s stall,
With wise men and farmers and shepherd and all.
But high from God’s heaven a star’s light did fall,
And the promise of ages it did then recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing:
A star in the sky, or a bird on the wing;
Or all of God’s angels in heaven to sing,
He surely could have had it, ’cause he was the King!

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus, the Saviour, did come for to die.
For poor ornery people like you and like I:
I wonder as I wander Out under the sky.

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 9, 8 December 2025

‘The angel Gabriel from heaven came’ … the Annunciation depicted in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are one-third of the way through Advent this year and yesterday was the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 December 2025). At noon each day in Advent this year, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England marks the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 December), and so my choice of an Advent hymn or carol today is ‘Gabriel’s Message’, also known as ‘The Angel Gabriel from Heaven came’.

This lilting carol takes inspiration from the Magnificat in Luke 1: 26-38, where the Angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary, telling her she will conceive and have a son named Jesus.

The hymn was translated or written by the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), a priest, poet and hymn writer who is best-known for ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’ and ‘Now the Day is Over’. He translated the carols ‘Gabriel’s Message’ and ‘Sing Lullaby’ from Basque carols.

‘Gabriel's Message’ quotes the account of the Annunciation and the Virgin Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) with the opening lines:

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame:
‘From God, all hail,’ the angel said to Mary,
‘most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

The Basque folk carol, in turn, is based on Angelus ad virginem a 13th or 14th century Latin carol. It was collected by the French composer Charles Bordes (1863-1909) and published in Paris 1897. It was then paraphrased in English and published in 1922 by Sabine Baring-Gould, who had spent a winter as a boy in the Basque country.

The tune ‘Gabriel’s Message’ is commonly performed in an arrangement by Edgar Pettman published in 1922. With their youthful sense of humour, this carol has been known irreverantly as to generations of choirboys as ‘most highly flavoured gravy’. But its use of the lilting phrase ‘Most highly favoured lady’ made it the favourite carol of Richard Harries when he was Bishop of Oxford.

Notable modern interpretations include a track on Sting’s single ‘Russians’ (1985) and on his album If on a Winter's Night … (2009). His interpretation of this carol is also part of the album A Very Special Christmas (1987).

Other recordings have been made by Charlotte Church on the album Dream a Dream (2000), Aled Jones on The Christmas Album(2004) and Moya Brennan of Clannad on her album An Irish Christmas (2005).

The Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary in icons of the Annunciation in Lichfield Cathedral (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame:
‘From God, all hail,’ the angel said to Mary,
‘most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

‘Fear not, for you shall bear a holy child,
by him shall we to God be reconciled;
his name shall be Emmanuel, the long-foretold:
most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

Then gentle Mary humbly bowed her head:
‘To me be as it pleases God,’ she said,
‘My soul shall praise and magnify his holy name.’
Most highly favoured lady!
Gloria!

‘And so,’ she said, ‘how happy I shall be!
All generations will remember me;
for God has kept his promises to Israel.’
Most highly favoured lady! Gloria!

Of her, Emmanuel – the Christ – was born
in Bethlehem, upon that Christmas morn.
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say,
‘Most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 8, 7 December 2025

‘Ring, bells, ring, ring, ring!’ … Christmas bells and baubles in the Old George in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Advent began last Sunday with Advent Sunday (30 November 2025), and today is the Second Sunday of Advent (7 December 2025). At noon each day in Advent this year, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

The Second Sunday of Advent and the second candle lit on the Advent Wreath this morning are associated with the Prophets. So, my choice of a hymn, carol or song today is ‘Long Ago, Prophets Knew’, an Advent carol written on 1970 by the Methodist minister and hymn writer, the Revd Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000). It was written at the suggestion of John Wilson and was published a year later in 26 Hymns.

The carol gained popularity in the Church of England when it was included in More Hymns for Today in 1980, in Hymns Ancient and Modern – New Standard in 1983, and then in The New English Hymnal in 1986.

Green set this hymn to the tune of Personent hodie, a Christmas carol originally published in 1582 in the Finnish song book Piae Cantiones.

The Revd Fred Pratt Green was born in Roby, Lancashire, and was ordained a Methodist minister in 1928. He began writing prolifically after he retired and his hymns reflect his rejection of fundamentalism and show his concern for social issues. He also wrote poetry, and his poem ‘The Old Couple’ was included by Philip Larkin in The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse (1973). His translations include one of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s late poems as the hymn ‘By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered’.

‘Ring, bells, ring, ring, ring!’ … Christmas decorations in the Old George in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Long ago, prophets knew
Christ would come, born a Jew.
Come to make all things new;
Bear his People’s burden,
Freely love and pardon.

Refrain:

Ring, bells, ring, ring, ring!
Sing, choirs, sing, sing, sing!
When he comes,
When he comes,
Who will make him welcome?

God in time, God in man,
This is God’s timeless plan:
He will come, as a man,
Born himself of woman,
God divinely human. [Refrain]

Mary, hail! Though afraid,
She believed, she obeyed.
In her womb God is laid;
Till the time expected
Nurtured and protected. [Refrain]

Journey ends! Where afar
Bethlem shines, like a star,
Stable door stands ajar.
Unborn Son of Mary,
Saviour, do not tarry!

Refrain:

Ring, bells, ring, ring, ring!
sing, choirs, sing, sing, sing!
Jesus comes!
Jesus comes!
We will make him welcome!

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 7, 6 December 2025

Santa in the window of Willis Flower Shop on Stony Stratford’s High Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Advent began last Sunday with Advent Sunday (30 November 2025), and tomorrow is the Second Sunday of Advent (7 December 2025). The countdown to Christmas is well and truly under way. At noon each day in Advent this year, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

My choice of a hymn, carol or song today is ‘Hark! a herald voice is calling’, which we sang as the recessional hymn in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, last Sunday (Advent I, 30 November 2025).

On this day (6 December), the Church traditionally remembers Saint Nicholas of Myra, who played a key role in formulating the agreements at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, leading to the Nicene Creed, whose 1700th anniversary we have been celebrating this year. But he is also the real, historical figure we remember today as Santa Claus.

For all who are children – and all of us who are children at heart – waiting for Santa’s visit is still a joyful anticipation. His free gifts and presents are tokens of the free giving and gifts of God in the present and presence of Christ at the incarnation, which we are preparing in Advent to welcome. This hymn, ‘Hark! a herald voice is calling’ is a reminder that we are all children at heart, ‘children of the day’.

This hymn is a translation of a fifth century Ambrosian hymn, Vox clara ecce intonate by Edward Caswall. The original words are probably an allusion to Saint John the Baptist, who said of himself: ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord”.’ (John 1: 23).

The priest and hymnwriter Edward Caswall (1814-1878) was born at Yateley, Hampshire, the son of the Revd RC Caswall, sometime Vicar of Yateley, Hampshire. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was ordained deacon (1838) and priest (1839) in the Church of England.

He was the curate of Saint Lawrence, Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury, in 1840-1847. After visiting Ireland with his wife Louisa and his brother Tom in 1846, he resigned his curacy and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in Rome by Cardinal Januarius Acton in January 1847, a decision that estranged Caswall from some of his family.

His wife Louisa, who had also become a Roman Catholic, died of cholera on 14 September 1849 while they were staying at Torquay. The following year, Caswall joined the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri under John Henry Newman, and he was ordained priest in 1852. He died at the Birmingham Oratory, Edgbaston, on 2 January 1878.

The tune ‘Merton’ is by William Henry Monk (1823-1889), who also write the tunes for ‘Abide with Me’ and ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’.

Hark! a herald voice is calling:
‘Christ is nigh,’ it seems to say;
‘Cast away the dreams of darkness,
O ye children of the day!’

Startled at the solemn warning,
Let the earth-bound soul arise;
Christ, her Sun, all sloth dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.

Lo! the Lamb, so long expected,
Comes with pardon down from heaven;
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all to be forgiven;

So when next he comes with glory,
Wrapping all the earth in fear,
May he then as our defender
Of the clouds of heaven appear.

Honour, glory, virtue, merit,
To the Father and the Son,
With the co-eternal Spirit,
While unending ages run. Amen.