Mattins and Evensong during Advent: Canticles
This 'lack' of 'choice', however, does not restrict the Church's praise during Advent. Again, the very fact that we have unchanging texts in the Cranmerian Office is an invitation to wade deeper, as we already know - from daily praying throughout the year - their words and structure, rather than attempting to identify meaning in new texts.
How, then, can the unchanging texts of the canticles in the Cranmerian Office shape and enrich the Church's praise during Advent?
Venite
" ... as in the day of temptation in the wilderness; When your fathers tempted me ... Forty years long was I grieved with this generation."
To pray the Venite daily in this season is to give profound expression to our need for the Lord's Advent, a need rooted in and conformed to Israel's waiting during the long centuries of defeat, exile, and expectation. This is us, the Church: in the wilderness, hearts hardened, grieving the Lord, "a people that do err in their hearts". It is from here that the Church's Advent prayer veni, veni Emmanuel arises. Indeed, without this need, we too easily lose sight of Advent of the Lord: we too easily immanentize the Advent hope and - no less crucially - fail to prepare ourselves for the searing judgement of the Lord.
The daily praying of the Venite as the unchanging invitatory at Mattins is, therefore, a deep experience of Advent.
Te Deum
Dearmer notes, "A general and appropriate custom is to substitute the Benedicite for the festal Te Deum during Advent". While I follow this practice during the weekdays of Advent, I tend to retain the Te Deum on Sundays and feasts (St. Andrew, Conception of the BVM, St. Thomas). This has the advantage of ensuring that the Te Deum's plea to Christ in Majesty is prayed during Advent:
We believe that thou shalt come: to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants: whom thou has redeemed by thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy Saints: in glory everlasting.
This petition powerfully sets before us what it means for Christ to "come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead". In an age still influenced by the legacy of mid- and late-20th century theologies committed to an unconvincing and unsatisfying overly-realized eschatology, it is good and necessary in our observance of Advent to be confronted by the deeper reality and truth of the Last Judgement. As Rowan Williams states:
The Eastern Orthodox Liturgy asks for 'a good answer before the terrible judgement seat of Christ'. It is worth praying for, in the knowledge that such a 'good answer' can only be provided by the one who has promised to be our advocate, the truth in person.
Benedicite
The Benedicite provides a wondrous vision of the eschatological "renewal of all things" (Matthew 19:28 NRSV), of the Crucified, Risen, and Ascended Lord "reconcil[ing] all things unto himself ... whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20 AV). It echoes the eschatological hope proclaimed in the Psalter:
Let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is: the round world, and they that dwell therein.
Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord: for he is come to judge the earth.
With righteousness shall he judge the world: and the people with equity (Ps.98:9-10).
Benedicite, then, reminds us of how the Lord's judgement refines, restores, and renews the created order, "delivered from the bondage of corruption" (Romans 8:21 AV), "a new heaven and a new earth" glimpsed by John the Seer.
Benedictus
Perhaps one of the most resonant aspects of praying the Benedictus during Advent is the opportunity it gives for reflecting on the ministry of the Forerunner. In other seasons, Zechariah's reference to his son's ministry is - for entirely understandable reasons - often neglected in favour of this canticle's wider references to the Gospel and the new covenant. In Advent, however, the ministry of the Forerunner rightly becomes a focus in the Church's prayer and reading of Scripture. (It is worth noting that John the Baptist figures prominently in the 1662 gospel readings for Advent III and IV.) Our need of the strange, unsettling figure of John, challenging our safe assumptions and easy complacency, is answered in the daily praying of the Benedictus at Mattins, calling us to be prepared for the Advent of the Lord:
And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.
Magnificat
Daily at Evensong the canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, situated in the Cranmerian Office after the the Old Testament reading, is a proclamation of the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel:
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel: as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.
During Advent this assumes an even deeper meaning, reassuring the Church - praying and waiting as did Israel of old - that Yahweh is faithful, His promises come to pass. The Blessed Virgin embodies the waiting of faithful Israel and encourages the Church to a trustful, pregnant waiting upon the Lord's Advent.
Nunc Dimittis
Waiting also characterised Simeon, who is described by St. Luke as "waiting for the consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25). If the Magnificat provides a daily Advent canticle of praise - Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel nascetur pro te, Israel - the Nunc as the second canticle at Evensong draws us into a patient, gentle waiting upon the Advent hope.
Hopefully this short series has shown that unchanging texts and the (apparent) absence of seasonal material, rather than being a weakness, is one of the great strengths of the Cranmerian Office. It is precisely because the texts are unchanging that their Advent resonances and characteristics can be a source of rich prayer and praise during this season, inviting us to dwell in these words as a means of being prepared for the Advent of the Lord.
(The illustration is from contemporary artist Vanessa Bowman. These illustrations are being used in this series on Mattins and Evensong in Advent to remind us that familiar, ordinary landscapes can be filled with Advent richness and meaning, as is the case with the Cranmerian Office.)
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