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Advent Frost

On the last days before Advent, a sharp frost fell on Jeremy Taylor country.  It provided a deeply evocative landscape in which to pray, for the last time this year, the Stir-up collect and in which to gather in the darkened parish church on Sunday evening for the Advent Procession.

Frost. It is the cold Winter of Narnia. In his wonderful new book Paths in the Snow: A literary journey through 'The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe', Jem Bloomfield notes that Narnia's everlasting Winter, under the spell of the White Witch, is an echo of the carol:

Adam lay y-bounden

Bounden in a bond

Four thousand winter

Thought he not too long.

Narnia's Winter, says, Bloomfield, is "quite a precise description of Advent ... 'Always winter, but never Christmas' gets over the sense of waiting which this period involves". 

And so we wait amidst the harsh frost in Jeremy Taylor country in these early days of Advent, giving voice to the ancient yearning of Israel and the Church, Veni, veni, Emmanuel.

Frost. It purifies and cleanses the land, removing that which is dead, making space for the new growth of Spring. It brings to mind the vision of the prophet Malachi, read at the Advent Procession:

But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver.

The frost of Winter reflects the penitence of Advent, the purification we are called to make in light of the Advent of the Lord, "when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead".

And so amidst the piercing frost in Jeremy Taylor country in these early days of Advent, we pray "give us grace that we might cast away the works of darkness".

Frost. Winter's dull, sodden landscape is suddenly enfolded in sharp beauty. In the very days before Advent, the Psalter brought us to Psalm 147 at Evensong, with its recognition of frost proceeding from and bestowed by the God of Israel:

He giveth snow like wool: and scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes ... who is able to abide his frost?

Almost as a commentary on the words of the psalmist, the poetic meditation of Rowan Williams points to frost as a sign of Advent transfiguration:

He will come like frost.

One morning when the shrinking earth

opens on mist, to find itself

arrested in the net

of alien, sword-set beauty.

In the frost transfiguring Winter's landscape, we can glimpse the Advent hope: "Behold, I make all things new".

And so amidst the beauty of the frost enfolding Jeremy Taylor country in these early days of Advent, we sing in hope of the renewal of all things: 'Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel'.

(The photograph is of The Middle Church, on the heart of Jeremy Taylor country, on the Friday of Stir-up week, 2023.)

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