Back in early November Huw Raphael invited fellow bloggers to join him in writing reflection on the Great —O— Antiphons used in the Western Church in the days preceding Christmas.
To see all my reflections for 2006 follow the links below:
O Virgo virginum,
quomodo fiet istud?
Quia nec primam similem visa es
nec habere sequentem.
Filiae Ierusalem,
quid me admiramini?
Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.O Virgin of virgins,
how shall this be?
For neither before was any like thee,
nor shall there be after.
Daughters of Jerusalem,
why marvel ye at me?
That which ye behold is a divine mystery.
Mary drags us to her Son, Jesus. Yet we resist her.
She points to Him. She disappears into the background for Him. She gives up the ‘normal’ life she could have had, for Him. She suffers for Him. She follows Him and serves Him —“ not as the glorified maiden, but as a maidservant.
I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Her action, work, love, and dedication are theologized to such an extent so as to miss her humanity. Her simple humanity submitted itself fully to the Lord. Trusting, not knowing. Hearing, not debating. Serving, not bemoaning honorifics.
Would that we take her at her word: Why marvel ye at me? Would that we follow her example all the more closely. Would that we allow ourselves to be carried away, subsumed fully by the mystery of the Incarnation. Would that we say with her,
Be it done unto me according to Thy word.
O Emmanuel,
Rex et legifer noster,
expectatio gentium,
et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos,
Domine, Deus noster.O Emmanuel,
our King and Lawgiver,
the one awaited by the gentiles,
and their Savior:
come to save us,
Lord our God.O Emmanuelu,
nasz Królu i Prawodawco,
oczekiwany zbawicielu narodów,
przyjdź, aby nas wybawić
nasz Panie i Boże
Come thou long expected Jesus! Come, O come, Emmanuel —“ God with us.
You are with us indeed, ever present on the altar and in the tabernacle. You are present in our coming together and in our work. You are present in our solitude and in our pain.
Lord, you are with us. Not just as a man, or as a spirit, but as the God-man. You are the perfection to which we are drawn. Yours is the kingdom which is now, but not yet. We are part of it, still striving toward it, and fully acknowledging that which is unfulfilled. Our thirst remains.
The vision of You is what we long for, not in the accidents of bread, but You in all Your reality and power, face to face. You, as Moses saw You. You, who swept across the waters and breathed life into the nostrils of the first man. You, for Whom we are sorely unprepared.
Lord, our God, Emmanuel, we cannot quench our thirst. We know we can only be complete in You, in Your totality and your reality.
Come to save us. Come Lord Jesus come!
O Rex Gentium,
et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis,
qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.O King of the Nations,
and the one they desired,
keystone,
who makes both peoples one,
come and save mankind,
whom you shaped from the mud.O Królu narodów
przez nie upragniony,
kamieniu węgielny Kościoła,
przyjdź zbaw człowieka,
którego utworzyłeś z prochu ziemi.
You have fashioned and created us, formed us in the womb. You are our beginning and our ending, yet we reject You.
You are the keystone, the cornerstone, the stone the builders rejected. Because of that rejection You have made us co-heirs, adopted sons and daughters, yet for all this generosity we know You not.
You come to us weak and vulnerable, God in the flesh, we nailed You to a tree. You come again and again, in word and in food, word that flies by our ears and food we eat without an afterthought.
Come and save us indeed, save us from ourselves. Save us from the pull of the world which longs to return us to the mud.
You have fashioned and created us, formed us in the womb. You are our beginning and our ending, You know us best, and that is why You come, over and over, to save us.
O Oriens,
splendor lucis aeternae,
et sol justitiae:
veni, et illumina
sedentes in tenebris,
et umbra mortis.O Dawn,
splendor of eternal light,
and sun of justice,
come, and shine
on those seated in darkness,
and in the shadow of death.O Wschodzie,
Blasku światłości wieczystej
i Słońce sprawiedliwości,
przyjdź i oświeć
żyjących w mroku
i cieniu śmierci.
So we sit in darkness waiting for something to happen to us, for the light to break through. We wallow in our self imposed agony, O God, when will you set us free?
We forget that He set us free already. We are free to choose Him, an easy choice if you consider the alternatives. We are free to enter into union with Him, every day at the altar; a great gift and blessing.
But still we sit and cry out, expecting the quick fix and the black and white answer. It won’t come, because our questions are not worthy of consideration. Rather what we need to do is allow the light of the new Dawn to shine in us, to set ourselves aside, and to work in truth, to struggle —“ fighting the good fight, and by doing so we will succeed —“ eternal life, eternal light.
O Clavis David,
et sceptrum domus Israí«l,
qui aperis, et nemo claudit,
claudis, et nemo aperuit:
veni, et educ vinctum
de domo carceris,
sedentem in tenebris,
et umbra mortis.O Key of David,
and scepter of the house of Israel,
you open, and no one shuts,
you shut, and no one opens:
come, and lead the prisoner
from jail,
seated in darkness
and in the shadow of death.O Kluczu Dawida
i Berło domu Izraela,
Ty który otwierasz a nikt zamknąć nie zdoła,
zamykasz a nikt nie otworzy,
przyjdź i wyprowadź
z więzienia
człowieka pogrążonego
w cieniu śmierci.
Definitely not literal! How many times do we seek the easy answer, the black and white definition; the answer to our longing, but on our terms?
The Lord asks us to come and follow Him. He opens the narrow path for us, and He can even allow the rich man to pass through the eye of the needle.
But, we see no easy answer because we cannot let go of our complexity.
Come follow me is quite easy, but it means leaving ourselves behind. He opens the way —“ for He is the way. He will, by His grace, close the door to our self-centered desires, our prison, because as we fall into His arms, arms of love, we will never desire anything other.
He is the key, the gate, and the door.
Lord, help us enter into the sheepfold through You. Lord, be our shepherd.
O Radix Jesse,
qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos,
jam noli tardareO Root of Jesse,
who stand as a sign for the people,
kings stand silent in your presence,
whom the nations will worship:
come to set us free,
put it off no longer.O Korzeniu Jessego,
który się wznosisz jako znak dla narodów,
przed Tobą zamilkną królowie,
a ludy będą się modlić do Ciebie,
przyjdź nas wyzwolić
już dłużej nie zwlekaj.
A shoot shall spout from the stump of Jesse’s tree. From a nation of no account, in human terms, the Savior shall come to us. From what appears to be a dead nation, a shoot of new life, Life that will redeem all life.
God comes to us in ways and forms that are unexpected. He came to Moses in the burning bush, He wrestled with Jacob, He came in a whisper to Elijah, and as a child in a manger among the outcasts.
Jesus the enigma, the God-man whose depths we barely plumb, can only be met in worship, the collective action of a community committed to Him.
Worship is our stance —“ arguments about kneeling, standing, prostrating notwithstanding. We, king or pauper, can do nothing more or less than worship God our Father, the Son our King, and the Spirit our life. It is the only response we can make. Our words are but senseless groaning before the throne of the King of kings. But he deigns to hear us, to love us, to incorporate us, and to free us.
Come Lord Jesus, put it off no longer. We are waiting.
O Adonai,
et dux domus Israí«l,
qui Moyse in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.O Adonai,
Wodzu Izraela,
Tyś w krzaku gorejącym objawił się Mojżeszowi
i na Syjonie dałeś mu Prawo,
przyjdź nas wyzwolić swym potężnym ramieniem.O Mighty Lord,
and leader of the house of Israí«l,
who appeared to Moses in the burning bush,
and on Sinai gave him the law,
come to redeem us with outstretched arm.
The Mighty Lord, the one who can save us with an outstretched arm. He comes with power and in radiant glory, on clouds, with chariot wheels of fire. Power, might, strength, authority, supremacy, control, command… synonyms we recognize when we think of that God —“ the one of the Parousia.
Redemption was begun with God’s outstretched arm, His reaching out to meet us in the form of a child, a child holding his arms out, seeking the comfort of his mother. Not power in any sense we understand.
Redemption was indeed accomplished with God’s outstretched arm —“ stretched out on the wood of the cross. What kind of power is that? It is the antithesis of the God we want.
Yet that is the power of redemption accomplished through perfect love. True power is synonymous with love.
O Sapientia,
quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter,
suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.O Mądrości,
która wyszłaś z ust Najwyższego,
Ty obejmujesz wszechświat od końca do końca
i wszystkim rządzisz z mocą i słodyczą,
przyjdź i naucz nas dróg roztropności.O Wisdom,
who proceeds from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching out mightily from end to end,
and sweetly arranging all things:
come to teach us the way of prudence.
The perfect Wisdom of God, expected from age to age, for whom the patriarchs and prophets stood watch, was brought to us in the Word, spoken by the Father and sent to us for our salvation. The Word of Wisdom from on high, Jesus Christ, sent to teach us prudence.
Prudence, synonymous with carefulness, cautiousness, discretion, good sense, and forethought is the antithesis of every worldly age. Rather than the headlong rush to tomorrow, to the next dollar, or victory over our perceived enemies, beg the Lord: Teach us prudence, let us not fall under the power and ways of wicked and foolish men.
I have joined with Huw Raphael and several others in undertaking a series of reflections on the “O” Antiphons.
Jeanne Kun describes the “O” Antiphons in Praising the Names of Jesus: The Antiphons of Advent
A distinctive feature of the Liturgy of the Hours in this week preceding the Christmas vigil is the antiphon sung at Vespers (evening prayer) before and after the recitation of the Magnificat. Originally incorporated into the monastic office in the Middle Ages, these antiphons, often called the “Greater Antiphons” or the “O Antiphons”, are also echoed in the daily lectionary as the verse for the gospel acclamation during this week. They add a mood of eager expectation to the liturgy that builds throughout these seven days and climaxes at Christmas.
The O Antiphons have been described as “a unique work of art and a special ornament of the pre-Christmas liturgy, filled with the Spirit of the Word of God”. They “create a poetry that fills the liturgy with its splendor”, and their composer shows “a magnificent command of the Bible’s wealth of motifs”. The antiphons are, in fact, a collage of Old Testament types of Christ. Their predominant theme is messianic, stressing the hope of the Savior’s coming. Jesus is invoked by various titles, mainly taken from the prophet Isaiah. The sequence progresses historically, from the beginning, before creation, to the very gates of Bethlehem.
In their structure, each of the seven antiphons follows the same pattern, resembling a traditional liturgical prayer. Each O Antiphon begins with an invocation of the expected Messiah, followed by praise of him under one of his particular titles. Each ends with a petition for God’s people, relevant to the title by which he is addressed, and the cry for him to “Come”.
The seven titles attributed to Jesus in the antiphons are Wisdom (Sapientia in Latin), Ruler of the House of Israel (Adonai), Root of Jesse (Radix), Key of David (Clavis), Rising Dawn (Oriens), King of the Gentiles (Rex). and Emmanuel. In Latin the initials of the titles make an acrostic which, when read backwards. means: “Tomorrow I will be there” (“Ero cras”). To the medieval mind this was clearly a reference to the approaching Christmas vigil.
Today the O Antiphons are most familiar to us in the hymn “O come, O come Emmanuel”. Each verse of the hymn parallels one of the antiphons. In addition to their use in the Liturgy of the Hours and the gospel acclamation, they have been popularly incorporated into church devotions and family prayer…
We begin our reflections today.