Notes on the Notes – December 21, 2025

Advent 4

This week’s music: 

“We Light This Candle” (TLUS #55)

“We light this candle for Love.
Await the new life within.
May our hearts now live each day,
So Love can find a way,
So Love can find a way.”

Our Advent candle-lighting song was written by Pat Mayberry (2016) and arranged by David Kai (2016). It appears in the new United Church song book, “Then Let Us Sing.”

“O Come, All Ye Faithful” (VU #60 v. 1-3)

“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:
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. 

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above;
Glory to God in the highest;
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.”

The original four verses of “O Come All Ye Faithful” were discovered in an eighteenth century Jacobean manuscript with John Francis Wade’s signature.  At one time historians believed that Wade had simply discovered an ancient hymn by an unknown author, possibly St. Bonaventura, a thirteenth century Italian scholar.  Further examination, however, has led many to believe that Wade wrote both the words and music of this hymn himself.  The lyrics are a celebration of the birth of Jesus. In 1841, the words were translated into English (from Latin). A copy of Wade’s hymn was also sent to the Portuguese chapel in London, where the Duke of Leeds heard it and introduced it to a group of concert singers he conducted. From there it circled the globe, becoming one of our most well loved Christmas hymns.

Hear Frank Sinatra sing the carol at:  https://youtu.be/NczzSYC-s10

“Come, Come Emmanuel” (MV #11)

“Come, come Emmanuel. Come, Emmanuel.
Come, come Emmanuel. Come, Emmanuel.”

This gentle chant is our response to the Words of Assurance. It was written by James J. Chepponis in 1995.

“On a Silent Night” 

“On the first Christmas night, so the scriptures proclaim,
A man and a woman to Bethlehem came.
Searching for shelter, they went to an inn;
But the lodgings were taken, no room was within.
But there was a stable, the innkeeper said,
Where they could lay their head.

On that cold winter night so long ago,
A star shone bright with a heavenly glow.
Shepherds and wise men were led by the star,
to Bethlehem they came from afar.
There in a stable the Baby was born;
The Holy Babe was born.

On a silent night, this holy night,
When all is calm, and all is bright.
‘Round yon virgin, mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly, heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.”

Using the familiar words of the carol “Silent Night,” composer Joyce Eilers has added a new tune and words retelling the story of the first Christmas.  This anthem was written in 1989.

“Carols of the Angels” 

“Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King:
Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations, rise, join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark!  the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.”

Angels we have heard on high sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply echo back their joyous strains.
Gloria in excelsis Deo,
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

 The first Noel, the angel did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay-
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep,
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.
Noel, noel!  Noel, noel!  Born is the King of Israel!
Noel, noel!  Noel, noel!  Born is the King of Israel!

 Hail the Heav’n-born Prince of Peace!  Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.
Hark!  the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.”
Glory to the newborn King.”

This medley of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Angels We Have Heard on High and The First Noel was arranged by Camp Kirkland in 2001.

The carol we now know as “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” did not start life as such, and required at least four people to bring it to its current form. Charles Wesley wrote the original words as a Christmas Day hymn and first published it in 1739, with ten four-line verses, rather than the longer eight-line verses with refrain which we have now.   The tune was composed by Felix Mendelssohn for his Festgesang, Op. 68.  It was scored for male voices with brass accompaniment, for the Gutenberg Festival in 1840 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press.  It was adapted into a hymn tune by William Hayman Cummings in 1856.

Hear Ella Fitzgerald at:  https://youtu.be/6nGVHpNLN7A?list=RD6nGVHpNLN7A

From “A Charlie Brown Christmas:”  https://youtu.be/wTu00FCLgPs?list=RDwTu00FCLgPs

Many years ago shepherds in the hills of southern France had a Christmas Eve custom of calling to one another, singing “Gloria in Excelsis Deo,” each from his own hillside.  The traditional tune that the shepherds used may have been from a late Medieval Latin chorale. It became the magnificent chorus of “Angels We Have Heard on High.”

See Andrea Bocelli at: https://youtu.be/B5iaV989_5M

Enjoy Lindsey Stirling’s violin interpretation at:  https://youtu.be/IFsDAoCHYiQ

The text of the carol, The First Noel, likely dates from the 17th century or earlier.  It was published in 1823 in a book of old English carols.  The tune, a traditional West Country melody, may be a fragment of an older English carol melody.

See Lady A perform the song at:  https://youtu.be/dVtNXp56kiQ?list=RDdVtNXp56kiQ

Hear David Archuleta (2009) at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqQuanlQbFg&list=RDiqQuanlQbFg&start_radio=1

Hear a version of the carol with Pachelbel’s Canon at: https://youtu.be/JqvX0B0GK74

 “In this Advent Time of Waiting”

“In this Advent time of waiting may we serve the Prince of Peace.
Share our gifts with those around us, joy and hope in all increase.
Dream the vision, tell the story, healing bring to those in need.
Share the promises once more, Christ is near, who came before.”

Our offering response for the season of Advent will be sung to a variation of the traditional Polish carol, W ZLOBIE LEZY, known in English as the carol “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.”

“Joy to the World” (VU #59 v. 1, 2 & 4)

“Joy to the world!  the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare him room,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth!  the Saviour reigns:
Let all their songs employ,
While fields and floods,
Rocks, hills and plains
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

He rules the earth with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness
and wonders of his love,
and wonders of his love,
and wonders, wonders of his love.”

The text for this carol is a paraphrase of Psalm 88:4-9.  It was written by Isaac Watts and first published in his Psalms of David in 1719.

Enjoy this carol by:

George Fox University Music department:   https://youtu.be/6oOwa0CWVVQ

Boys’ choir “Libera” at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IH8A86FLs0

“A World of Love”

“May we be filled with love in our hearts, in our lives.
May we be filled with a world of love. 
May we be filled with love in our hearts, in our lives.
May we be filled with a world of love. 

Love, now the promise begins.
Love is the light within.
Love in the mystery.
Love holds all that can be. 

May we be filled with love in our hearts, in our lives.
May we be filled with a world of love. 
May we be filled with love in our hearts, in our lives.
May we be filled with a world of love.”

Our benediction response for the season of Advent was written by Mary-Ellen Kish in 2010.