The last seven evenings of Advent, from tomorrow to Dec. 23, are traditionally spent praying a set of ancient prayers called the “O Antiphons.” Each night addresses Christ by a different title, based upon the Messianic prophesies in the Book of Isaiah. Most people are familiar with these titles from the hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, which is based upon the O Antiphons:
- Dec 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom),
- Dec 18: O Adonai (O Lord),
- Dec 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse),
- Dec 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David),
- Dec 21: O Oriens (O Rising Sun),
- Dec 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations), and
- Dec 23: O Emmanuel
The first letter of each Messianic title, read from Dec. 23 backwards, spells “ero cras,” or “Tomorrow, I come,” which is fitting, since the next night is the Christmas Vigil.
This Advent, I plan to do a short post, each day from tomorrow to the 23rd, highlighting the O Antiphon of the day, because I think it's one of the best ways of prayerfully preparing for Christmas.
Awesome! I'm looking forward to the posts.
ReplyDeleteAcrostic prayer, that really is the best.
ReplyDeleteJoe, I wanted to look up the history of the Antiphons (to give props to the people who devised them, but the link doesn't work.
Looking forward to the posts, and to Christmas.
According to http://divineoffice.org/ and Fr.Z the O Antiphons already start tonight, on the 17th of December.
ReplyDeleteGeorg and Otepoti,
ReplyDeleteThanks for catching those mistakes, both are fixed. (the whole "the day begins at the vigil the night before" thing threw me). I've been way too sloppy lately!
I.X.,
Joe