God responds by gently repeating His invitation and asking us if we “lack’d anything.” When we reply that we are unworthy to even look at God, God smiles and reminds us that He gave us the very eyes with which to see Him. God invites us to a feast, but we draw back out of a sense of guilt and sin. It is a dialogue between us (as human beings) and God, who is referred to simply as Love.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:ĭrury praises the poem for its stylistic and emotional sensitivity, and even more so for its brief encapsulation of “Christianity’s whole grand biblical narrative of humanity.” 2 In essence, this poem incorporates the entire Gospel message, and speaks directly to us about the proper Christian attitude toward faith and life. Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shameĪnd know you not, says Love, who bore the blame? I, the unkind, the ungrateful? Ah my dear, Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,īut quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack The first chapter of Drury’s book quoted one of Herbert’s most famous poems-the third of a series of verses he wrote simply entitled “Love”: Emulating the Good Samaritan, Herbert shared his coat and blessing with the man, even leaving him money “to refresh both himself and his horse.” When later upbraided about engaging in “so dirty an employment,” Herbert responded beautifully by insisting that he must surely “practice what I pray for.” 1 The story made me think of Herbert as a model for both our Christian beliefs, and our practice of those beliefs, in the Advent season. The frontispiece to the work includes a quotation from Izaak Walton’s 1760 biography of Herbert, recounting the story of Herbert’s encounter with a poor man and his broken-down horse on an English country road.

The idea of Advent as belief and practice came home to me as I read the opening pages of a recently published book about the 17th century British poet, George Herbert (1593-1633), by John Drury, entitled Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert (University of Chicago Press, 2014). In the process, Advent cultivates an internal disposition best suited to prepare for the ends of our existence. The season demands that we consider the act of preparation, and raises questions about what exactly we are preparing for. Advent teaches us how to ready ourselves for whatever lies ahead in our lives for the “next big thing,” and ultimately for our own death, and the end of time as we know it. George Herbert portrayed in a window in Bishop Burton Church, East Riding, England.Īs both a liturgical season and a spiritual practice, Advent invites us to consider serious questions about our Christian beliefs, and our fundamental being. Painting of George Hebert by William Dyce (Septem–February 14, 1864).

George herbert famous poems