Rorate, Coeli.
(Advent.)
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One.
Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: beheld, thy holy city is become deserted: Sion is become a desert: Jerusalem is desolate: the house of thy sanctification and of thy glory, where our fathers praised thee.
We have sinned, and are become as unclean: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have carried us away: thou hast hidden thy face from us, and hast crushed us in the hand of our iniquity.
Behold, O Lord, the affliction of thy people, and send forth him who is to come: send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Sion: that he may take away the yoke of our captivity.
Be comforted; be comforted, my people: thy salvation cometh quickly: why with grief art thou consumed? for sorrow hath stricken thee: I will save thee, fear not: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.
[Music for the above in “ Popular Choir Manual.”]
