Something for the weekend. Veni, Veni Emmanuel. The words of this magnificent hymn are from the 9th century and the melody is from 15th century France.Â
It is Advent, so we are all hearing a lot of O Come, O Come Emmanuel, usually in English, at Mass, a song I have always loved. The version above is from Casting Crowns, a Christian Rock group that my daughter is fond of. I was stunned last year when I came across this, as I like it, and I usually refer to the music she enjoys as “animal killing music”!
I’ve always enjoyed the version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel done by Phillips, Craig & Dean. I could almost imagine a band of Jewish Zealots singing this before the birth of Christ. The gentleman below in the video is using the song to teach American Sign Language.
Finally, few versions of O Come, O Come Emmanuel are more powerful than in the one in the video below. I posted it last year and the year before but it definitely deserves to be repeated each year.
Absolutely beautiful, music!
It just isn’t Advent without this song for me. Although it’s kind of melancholy, well, isn’t Advent all about longing for a savior?
Just to show how wrapped up in worldly things one can get… a couple of years ago about this same time of year, I saw a different post titled “Veni Emmanuel” and the first thought that came into my head was that it was about Rahm Emanuel (this was right after Blago got busted for selling the Obama Senate seat). At that moment, I realized that I had been spending WAY too much time reading political blogs 🙂
[…] And then there’s this, from Casting Crowns via The American Catholic: […]