Advent comes with a repertoire of hymnody unique to the season, such as “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Among traditional Advent hymns now sung in English-speaking Catholic churches is Englishwoman Eleanor Farjeon’s “People, Look East,” which was sung in my parish last Sunday. I had to wonder whether some dioceses might be putting out liturgical notes to restrict its use. Urging “People, Look East” could be taken as a backdoor endorsement of versus orientem posture, maybe even a subversion of Vatican II’s liturgical reforms. Can’t chance such “wrongthink”! It seems to me three options might be available:

1) Total suppression of the hymn (preferred; it also uses big words of which some ICEL translators would disapprove);

2) Revision as “People, Look at Other People!” to affirm loyalty to a versus populum posture; or

3) Leaving the hymn as-is, for use in “trad” communities that transition to the Novus Ordo but in Latin, who now understand that their desire to “Look East” towards God actually means looking at the priest as alter Christus. This indult will be allowed provided those singing the hymn as-is affirm their loyalty to all other reforms proclaimed in the Council’s name (like a leveling of the priest and “assembly” in “celebrating” Eucharist) and that they don’t sing so as to disturb any reformed nonagenarian nuns who might be bothered by possible suggestions of  “clericalization” and “hierarchization.”

However, for concerned clerics, a text search indicates one redeeming point on the lyrics of “People, Look East”: there is no mention of kneeling.