Daily Advent Evening Prayer: Second Monday

Image by greendykes
The closing song at Mass in my parish this weekend was People, Look East. The lyrics are the work of Eleanor Farjeon whose poem A Morning Song (For the First Day of Spring) became the lyrics for the familiar Morning Has Broken. Both of these hymns use the imagery of nature to speak the language of faith.

Here's a beautiful folk setting of People, Look East. This version includes several more verses (anonymous) in addition to Farjeon's lyrics. Unfortunately, this recording omits the last of Farjeon's stanzas which is No. 7 below.




1. People, look east The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you're able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.

2. Furrows, be glad Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.

3. See how the flowers all burst anew,
Thinking snow is summer dew;
See how the stars afresh are glowing,
All their brightest beams bestowing.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.

4. Birds, though ye long have ceased to build,
Guard the nest that must be filled.
Even the hour when wings are frozen
Heat for fledgling time has chosen.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the bird, is on the way.

5. Hark! Even now the bells ring round,
Listen to their merry sound;
Hark! How the birds new songs are making
As if winter's chains were breaking.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the bird, is on the way.

6. Stars, keep watch when night is dim
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the star, is on the way.

7. Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.

Lord,
turn my face to the east
to look for your coming...
Turn my face in any and every direction
from which you draw near to me...

Teach me to look for you in places
I would not expect to find you...
Teach me to find you in places so well known to me
that I now fail to see you there...

Help me to see you in every guest I entertain...

Let the beauty of a rose, of any bloom,
reveal your presence to me...

Let every bird who wings across the sky above
remind me of the freedom that is mine in loving you...

Let every star in the heaven be a light
in the darkness of my lonely nights...

Never let me forget that you are love
and that those who abide in love abide in you...

Teach to look east, Lord,
and north and south and west
that I might find you in every place I look...

Amen.

Our Father...

-ConcordPastor