O Antiphons – O Emmanuel

O Antiphons – O Rex Gentium

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

O Antiphon – O Oriens

Yesterday I had a moment of spontaneous prayer-writing as I prepared the O Clavis David post. The words that came to me were:

We await the dawn, the coming of the Son of Justice, opening the door to lead us out of darkness and into the light!

Today we have the O Antiphon in which that door opens – O Oriens! Or O Rising Sun! This is why I always stand in awe of how the Holy Spirit works. While it was not my intention to connect one day to the next in quite that way, as usual, God has other plans. Better ones than we have.

O Antiphons – O Clavis David

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel;
qui aperis, et nemo claudit;
claudis, et nemo aperit:
veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,
sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;
you open and no one can shut;
you shut and no one can open:
Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,
those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

We await the dawn, the coming of the Son of Justice, opening the door to lead us out of darkness and into the light!

O Antiphons – O Radix Jesse

O Radix Jesse
O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;
before you kings will shut their mouths,
to you the nations will make their prayer:
Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

About four years ago I read a book about liturgy and worship, I believe that it was by Nathan Mitchell. I can’t find the book right now, so that’s as accurate as I can get at the moment.

Mitchell was talking about the communal nature of liturgy and of how networks arise. Trust me – it made sense in the book, which I hope to get my hands on and quote more directly. He wrote about the roots of rhizomes, which unlike tree roots, that go deep, reach out to connect to one another. While I have thought of this many times over the years, I never thought of it in relationship to this O Antiphon until today.

O Antiphons – O Adonai

Today is the second day of the O Antiphons. The O Antiphons are different names for the Messiah, and today we hear O Adonai.

Adonai, which also means Lord, has some other meanings as well. This is one of my own personal challenges with more literal translations. Words have cultural values as well and their meanings are often expressed through the context of the time in which they are used.

The term Adonai, or Lord, also has some etymology in the

Bonus Post – The O Antiphons – O Sapientia

(I will post something for each day of the O Antiphons, which begin today.)

December 17th marks the beginning of the O Antiphons.

From the linked article:

The “O Antiphons” refer to the seven antiphons that are recited (or chanted) preceding the Magnificat during Vespers of the Liturgy of the Hours. They cover the special period of Advent preparation known as the Octave before Christmas, Dec. 17-23, with Dec. 24 being Christmas Eve and Vespers for that evening being for the Christmas Vigil.

The Liturgy of the Hours is the prayer of of the church as we literally “pray through the day.” Many of us in the secular life use an abbreviated form of this prayer, but in monasteries, convents and all sorts of places, this is prayed daily.

Vespers is the