O Come All Ye Faithful

“When this great army of angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, ‘Come on!  Let’s go to Bethlehem!  Let’s see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’
They ran to the village and found their way to Mary and Joseph.  And there was the baby, lying in the manger.” Luke 2:15 and 16 [The Living Bible]
I can just feel the shepherd’s excitement, can’t you?  Imagine having not one but a host of angels visiting you straight from heaven announcing such phenomenal news; Christ the Savior is born.  The shepherds were hand picked by God to receive this wonderful news first but who wouldn’t run to Bethlehem to worship the Christ child?

The shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep by night.  The last 400 years had been like a spiritual night, a spiritual dryness for the Jews.  They had not heard directly from God since Malachi was written.  But like the shepherds were watching over their sheep during their nighttime, the Jews were watching for God’s promise of the coming King, the Messiah, too.  

We too can come with the shepherds this Christmas Advent season and adore Him. We don’t even have to travel anywhere because He comes to us in our hearts.

 

1. Oh 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.

2. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation;
Sing, all ye citizens of heav’n above:
Glory to God, glory in the highest.
O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him,
O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

 3. Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus to Thee be glory giv’n;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.
O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him,
O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

We can thank John Francis Wade [1711-86] for this beautiful carol.  Wade was English but fled England with other Catholics during the Jacobite rebellion because of persecution.   In Douai, France he barely made a living, copying and selling sheet music and teaching music to children of the exiles.

 Wade wrote this carol in Latin, “Adeste Fideles, Laeti trimphante”.
He worked with Britain’s John Reading who wrote the melody for him. After the persecution the English refugees returned to England bringing the carol with them.

 Fortunately for us, a century later, an Anglican preacher, Rev. Frederick Oakeley came upon the song. He felt that if his congregation had good literary texts to sing, it would sing well. He liked the Latin carol and translated it into English for us.  His congregation, like our churches today, loved it. It has stood the test of time and now as then, it has also become part of our church worship at Christmas time.