Other than the Latin Mass, is there anything more beautiful than this?

Welcome to Advent, season of penitence and reflection before we begin the great and mystical feast of The Nativity of Our Lord.

Advent runs a poor second to Lent and it's easy to see why.
 Office parties family reunions, social gatherings of every kind drag our attention away from the drama of a young mother, heavily with child and her husband, struggling on a journey that would be hard even at the best time of the year.

Not easy to remember what Advent is all about; fasting and acts penitential and repentance.

Providentially, this season is packed full of sacred music that pulls us back to reflecting on reality and the feast to come.

This video clip is well known but I do not know its provenance; if anyone knows whether a CD exists please let me know - I would love to own a copy.

The Advent chant is all that it should be; plaintive, pleading and sad.

The two young women who sing this piece show that  a headscarf is just as viable as a mantilla and that it adds a certain air of reverence and dignity to proceedings.

 At the end, watch their faces closely; I do believe that one of them, at least, is close to tears.

So very moving.

Drop down Dew, ye Heavens, from Above
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity : behold the city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert. Jerusalem is desolate, the house of our holiness and of thy glory, where our fathers praised thee.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

We have sinned, and we are become as one unclean, and we have all fallen as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed us by the hand of our iniquity.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

See, O Lord, the affliction of thy people, and send him whom thou hast promised to send. Send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion, that he himself may take off the yoke of our captivity.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

Be comforted, be comforted, my people; thy salvation shall speedily come. Why wilt thou waste away in sadness? why hath sorrow seized thee? I will save thee; fear not: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.