Imagine a crisp December morning, before sunrise, and you are in a church that is mostly dark, yet the altar is illuminated by so many candles that it feels as though you have been transported to another time and place. There is silence until you hear words from Isaiah 45:8.
Roráte caéli désuper,
et núbes plúant jústum.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness.
Going all the way back to the 700s, this Eucharistic liturgy was in many places on each of the seven days preceding Christmas. In some places in Italy, this liturgy was celebrated on the nine days preceding Christmas, presumably each day representing a month in the Virgin Mary’s pregnancy with Our Lord. By more modern times, if the Rorate was celebrated at all, it was normally offered before December 16th, and only once.
While much of the custom around the Rorate (pronounced roh-rah-teh) Eucharist varies greatly from region to region, the character is mostly the same. It is celebrated by candlelight and awaits the sunrise, just as we, deep in Advent, await the birth of Christ. The readings are taken from the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she is to bear the very Son of God. The Gospel lesson concludes with Mary’s fiat, “Let it be unto me according to thy word.”
We are invited, in this liturgy, to meditate upon our own Christian calling and how we may offer our “yes” to God.”
The liturgy ends with the words “Ecce, Dominus veniet,” or “Behold, the Lord is coming” three times, as a parallel to the three times the deacon chants “Behold, the wood of the Cross” on Good Friday and “The Light of Christ” at the Easter Vigil.
Strengthened by the Eucharist and our spirits fed in quiet worship, contemplation, and closeness to Christ, we venture back out into the world, with the sun having risen.
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