Rorate Candles: Advent Meditations with the Art of Georges de la Tour

Georges de la Tour, Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

The traditional Roman Rite offers irreplaceable treasures of grace in every liturgical season. The first Sunday of Advent in the traditional liturgy begins on an unforgettable note, arresting the soul with its expression of expectant longing and Christ’s solemn prophecy of the awesome, terrible day of His Second Coming.

Then, the traditional Collect forcefully reminds us of the reality of our sins, our abjection in this vale of tears, and our need for a Redeemer:

Put forth Thy power, O Lord, we beseech Thee, and come, that with Thee as our protector we may be rescued from the impending danger of our sins; and with Thee as our deliverer, may we obtain our salvation.

Amid our dire condition, the light of faith shines serenely. Awakened and watchful for the approach of her Lord, the soul stirs her sight and bends her ear in loving attentiveness. Rorate candles, Rose vestments, and O Antiphons draw us into the spirit of wonder that will culminate in the prayer of the Church, the Bride of Christ, at the refulgent altar of Midnight Mass: O God, Who have brightened this most holy night with the splendor of the true light, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may know in heaven the joy of that light which we have mystically known on earth.

Perhaps no artist in the great Western tradition captured this spiritual contemplation of light in darkness, so proper to the season of Advent, as did Georges de la Tour.

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