The Ancient Prophecies Foretold
This multi-verse hymn was written for the Nativity Fast by Monsignor Russell Duker of the Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church, in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
Source
This hymn was provided to me as a scan by cantor John Michalski of a leaflet that appears to be the work of Mr. John Vernoski. There are slghtly different versions in the material distributed by cantor Jerry Jumba in his Advanced Cantor School, and it appears from this material that "The Ancient Prophecies" was originally intended to be sung as part of a weekly candle ceremony, like that of the Roman Advent wreath. Each of the verses is assigned a start date, a colored c andle, and a theme; presumably one hymn would be sung the first time, then two verses, and so on. There is also a verse and a new refrain to be used starting on the feast of the Nativity.
Text and music were reworked as part of the Hymnal Project of the Metropolitan Cantor Institute. See the discussion page for details.