Cushing's and kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma) patient, founder, owner and webmaster of Cushing's Help and Support, web designer, piano teacher and mom.
I am a Cushing's patient who has dealt with Cushing's symptoms since 1983 (or earlier) and the aftereffects of pituitary surgery since 1987.
Because I had very little support for my symptoms, diagnosis and surgery, I decided to try to make things a little better for other patients and started a support site called Cushing's Help and Support in 2000. The site has grown to astronomical numbers. This disease isn't as rare as doctors have told us!
In 2006, I was also diagnosed with kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma). My left kidney and adrenal gland were removed. Having an adrenal gland removed complicates my post-Cushing's symptoms.
I am not planning to have any more rare and unusual diseases.
My entire bio to date can be found here: http://www.cushings-help.com/maryos_story.htm
But, enough of that - it's not always about Cushing's, or even Cancer. This one is about Life!
The origins of popular Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” extend back to the 9th century. Photo and Canva illustration by Crystal Caviness, United Methodist Communications
When United Methodists sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” few likely know this popular Advent hymn’s origins span across 1200 years.
The story of how Latin vespers chanted by monks in the 800s found itself recorded in the 21st century by the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Wynonna Judd follows a circuitous and mysterious history through Europe.
The words
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” hearkens back to medieval times when Christmas Vespers were sung, primarily in monasteries, from December 17 to December 23, a tradition which continues to this day in Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. Using hymns called “O” Antiphons, the verses, sung in Latin, all began with “O.” (The word, “antiphon” means psalm or anthem.)
Englishman John Mason Neale first translated the “O” Antiphons from Latin to English in the early 1850s. Neale was an Anglican priest, hymn writer and prize-winning poet who was influenced by the Oxford Movement.
Said to be a high church traditionalist, Neale eschewed the hymns of popular 18th century composer Isaac Watts, who wrote more than 600 hymns, including “Joy to the World.” Neale longed to return the Church to its liturgical roots and was known for translating ancient Greek and Latin hymns into English.
In addition to authoring “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” Neal also wrote “Good King Wenceslas,” “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” and the Palm Sunday hymn, “All Glory, Laud and Honor.”
Fun fact: Neale’s first version of the hymn began with the words, “Draw nigh, draw night, Emmanuel.”
The music
In 1851, Thomas Helmore is credited with pairing the familiar tune we sing today, called “Veni Emmanuel,” with the English translation of the words when he published “Hymnal Noted.” At the time, Helmore attributed the music to “a French Missal in the National Library, Lisbon.” Additional details of the melody’s origins remained a mystery for more than 100 years. In 1966, Mary Berry, a British musicologist, discovered a 15th-century manuscript of the melody at the National Library of France. The original composition, according to Berry’s writings, is a burial processional chant with the words, “Bone Jesu dulcis cunctis.” The author is unknown.
Though the “Veni Emmanuel” tune is the most common, alternative versions exist, particularly in German.
The popularity
When Helmore published “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” in “Hymnal Noted,” he unknowingly set the song on its trajectory to distinction.
Helmore’s version was included in “Hymns Ancient and Modern,” edited by William Henry Monk, published in 1861 and considered the Church of England’s official hymnal. By the end of the 1800s, more than three-quarters of English churches used the volume, making “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” part of the Christian church’s tradition.
Across the decades, translators tweaked the verses. The version we sing today, including the one found as no. 211 in the United Methodist Hymnal, combines Neale’s translation with revisions made in 1941 for the Episcopal “Hymnal” and translations by Henry Sloane Coffin, a Presbyterian minister and social activist.
In addition to serving as an Christmastime standard both in Christian and secular society (dozens of popular music acts have recorded versions of the hymn), the verses provide a meaningful devotion for us during the Advent season, a time when we prepare and await the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.
Crystal Caviness works for UMC.org at United Methodist Communications. Contact her by email or at 615-742-5138.
Matthew 25:39 ‘When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
Pender is in mission to incarcerated Fairfax youth as they await their sentencing. We worship monthly, and once a year, we host a Christmas Party.
It is a particularly difficult environment in which to establish a party mood. But I am Maryann Weber, and I bring party. Is joining me something you could do and is on your heart?
Covid restrictions are lifted and we can bring as many as who want to come. Still masks, though.
Sunday, November 27, 2022 is the First Sunday in Advent. I’m skipping a couple of the Chuck Knows Church episodes because this one is so timely. We’ll get back to the others after Christmas.
The first Candle is lit on the first Sunday of Advent. It is called the Prophecy Candle and reminds us that Jesus’ coming was prophesied hundreds of years before He was born. The candle’s purple color represents Christ’s royalty as the King of Kings.
The Advent wreath began as a German and Scandinavian home devotional practice used to mark the four weeks of Advent. Families would light a candle for each past week and the current week at their dinner or evening time of prayer. The configuration of candles, whether in a line or a circle, did not matter. Neither did the color of the candles (all colors are used in homes in Europe). What mattered was the marking of time and the increase of light each week in the face of increasing darkness as the winter solstice approached.
As Advent wreaths began to be used by congregations on Sundays in some places in Europe and America beginning in the late 19th century, several adaptations were made to make them work better in public worship spaces. Candles needed to be larger and more uniform than the “daily candles” handmade or purchased for home use. They also needed to be more uniform in color to fit with other décor in the sanctuary. That is why candles used in the Advent wreath are usually purple or blue, to coordinate with color of the paraments used during this season.
This shift in context from home to public use also made it important in the eyes of some for the candles to be given a meaning more that simply marking time and increasing light. This led to special ceremonies being developed for lighting these special candles each week.
As this practice began to catch on by the mid-twentieth century, several church supply houses who sold Advent wreaths and candles for public worship also developed resources, banners, and bulletin covers assigning a theme to each week, and thus each candle, based on scriptures from the one-year lectionaries used at that time. Those themes were Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace, in that order.
Today, almost no one uses those one-year lectionaries, so those themes may not always fit the scriptures we hear in worship. The one exception is the Third Sunday of Advent, where the current lectionaries have continued to support the centuries old observance of “Gaudete” or “Joy Sunday.” That is why church supply houses often offer rose or pink colored candles for the wreath for use on this day.
So how may we talk about the meaning of the Advent wreath today?
We can reclaim the original home use of marking time with the hope of increasing light as we await the return of Christ, that day when “The city no longer has need of the sun or the moon to shine upon it, because the glory of God illumines it, and its lamp is the lamb.”
And we can develop meanings or themes for each week based on the focus of the scriptures themselves. After all, the candles and the wreath are an accessory, not an end in themselves. Their meaningfulness comes from how we use them to point toward Christ, the world’s true light, who was, and is, and is to come.
This content was produced by Ask The UMC, a ministry of United Methodist Communications.
Suggested Bible Reading: Luke 1:26-38
Chuck Knows Church — ADVENT WREATH. Four candles in a circle with a big one in the middle? Yep, take a moment and learn the basics about the advent wreath. And why is the pink candle…pink?
The origins of popular Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” extend back to the 9th century. Photo and Canva illustration by Crystal Caviness, United Methodist Communications
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