Waiting for the consolation of Israel: Cosin's prayer for Advent Embertide

In the time of Advent.

Grant, we most humbly beseech Thee, O heavenly Father, that with holy Simeon and Anna, and all Thy devout servants, who waited for the consolation of Israel, we may at this time so serve Thee with fasting and prayer, that by the celebration of the advent and birth of our blessed Redeemer, we may with them be filled with true joy and consolation, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The prayer for Advent Embertide in Cosin's 1626 A Collection of Private Devotions is a glorious example of both Caroline piety and how the Prayer Book provision for Advent could be complemented by additional themes.

Cosin's evocative reference to "holy Simeon and Anna ... who waited for the consolation of Israel" provides something of an echo of the ancient Advent antiphons, and like them sees Israel's waiting and longing over long centuries as a type of the Church's waiting in Advent. Evoking this powerfully imaginative image, which has long been a rich feature of the Church's Advent prayer (and is also reflected in the Prayer Book collect for the Second Sunday of Advent), has a particular relevance as we prepare to move into 'deep Advent' on O Sapientia.

By emphasising the penitential nature of Advent Embertide - "at this time so serve thee with prayer and fasting" - the prayer also draws on older ideas of St. Martin's Lent and the East's Nativity Fast. As such, it is an important reminder of how penitence and abstinence should be part of our Advent observance. We should also note that this reflects Anna's prophetic waiting upon the Messiah: "she ... served God with fastings and prayers night and day". The penitential nature of Advent, therefore, draws us more deeply into Israel's waiting for the fulfilment of the prophetic proclamation: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people".

Finally, Cosin's prayer also points to the significance of the celebration of Christmas. Contrary to an image encourage by Duffy's Stripping of the Altars, it clearly is not the case that festivities surrounding the Lord's Nativity disappeared from the reformed ecclesia Anglicana. As one of the great feasts of the Book of Common Prayer - and a feast on which reception of the Sacrament was normal practice - Cosin's use of "celebration" is particularly appropriate.

The reference to finding "true joy and consolation" in the feast also echoes the traditional proclamation of the Incarnation, as seen, for example, in a Christmas sermon by Ælfric: "who by his coming drives away all the dark ignorance of the old night and illuminates the whole world by his grace", The joyful, consoling nature of the Lord's Incarnation and Nativity lies at the heart of the traditional piety surrounding the feast, a piety for which we prepare ourselves to enter into through the penitential observance of Advent.

Cosin's prayer for Advent Embertide deserves to be more widely used, a means of renewing the observance of the Ember Days in this season. Using Advent Embertide as a means of emphasising the penitential nature of Advent is a worthy project, not least amidst the cultural excesses of the commercial Christmas. A slight modification - replacing 'fasting' with 'penitence' (the Prayer Book Kalendar does not propose fasting throughout Advent) - would make it appropriate for the entirety of Advent, rooting the penitence of the season in Israel's waiting, sharpening our prayer 'Come and ransom captive Israel', revealing it to be not beautiful elegy but a prayer of deep need, from within the winter of our souls.

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