Emmanuel: Advent Daybook, 22
Take a few deep breaths, settle your body, mind, and heart into a quiet space, and let's begin with prayer.
Opening prayer: Heavenly Father, make me more like Jesus and more like the true self you've created as I savor your loving presence today. Please guide my thoughts and impressions with your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Look: Nativity, Nicholas Mynheer -Source
Listen: Advent Song, The Porter's Gate, feat. Jonathan Ogden & Page CXVI - Spotify | YouTube
Read: Isaiah 7:10-17; Psalm 24; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25
Pray: The Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Advent
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and as we are sorely hindered by our sins from running the race that is set before us, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Do: Today, light four candles to mark the fourth week of Advent.
Tomorrow our format will shift a little bit as we begin a seven-day focus on the O Antiphons of Advent. Scroll down to read ahead!
*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary. Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 1).
O Antiphons
O COME, O COME EMMANUEL!
"In the first centuries, the Church had a beautiful custom of praying seven great prayers calling afresh on Christ to come, calling him by the mysterious titles he has in Isaiah, calling to him; O Wisdom. O Root! O Key O Light! Come to us! "-- Malcolm Guite
Advent slightly shifts its focus beginning December 17 when the antiphons for Vespers, known as the O Antiphons, are sung at the Magnificat. Each O Antiphon addresses Jesus with a title that comes from the prophecies of Isaiah anticipating the coming of the Messiah. The first letters of the titles in the original Latin in reverse order spell "Ero Cras," meaning "Tomorrow, I will come."
The reality is that most of us who celebrate Christmas have been praying the O Antiphons without ever knowing it. The seven prayers comprise the seven verses of the beloved Advent hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." I know I'm not alone in my love for that hymn. I never get tired of it and enjoy almost every arrangement I've ever heard.
I first learned about the O Antiphons from a beautiful collection of sonnets by poet-priest Malcolm Guite. I began including the seven reflections in my Advent Daybook each year. Later, our Church began celebrating an annual Advent Compline service, incorporating Guite's seven sonnets into an excellent resource from our friends at Modern Liturgic.
This year, I'm adapting the dates to fit the format of Daybook Meditations. For the next seven days, leading up to Christmas, I've shifted our daily lectionary passages to specially selected Scripture for each of the O Antiphons. Instead of including a piece of music, I’ll invite you to sing one verse of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, each day.
I'll also include a link to each of Malcolm Guite's seven sonnets which invite us to delight in the O Antiphons' deeper meaning:
"... we come to the last of the Seven Great O Antiphons, which was sung on either side of the Magnificat on Christmas Eve, O Emmanuel, O God with us. This is the antiphon from which our lovely Advent hymn takes its name. It was also this final antiphon which revealed the secret message embedded subtly into the whole antiphon sequence. In each of these antiphons we have been calling on Him to come to us, to come as Light as Key, as King, as God with us. Now, standing on the brink of Christmas Eve, looking back at the illuminated capital letters for each of the seven titles of Christ we would see an answer to our pleas: ERO CRAS the latin words meaning 'Tomorrow I will come!" -- Malcolm Guite
Taken together, the O Antiphons circle us back to the heart of Advent: waiting for arrival. I hope you'll find the meditations to take you deeper into the heart of God with us who will surely come again and forever. Let's sing our hearts out this week, friends!
O COME, O COME EMMANUEL!
A few additional resources:
The Homely Hours: The Great O Antiphons Printable Ornaments
God With Us: An Advent Retreat with the O Antiphons from Pray-As-You-Go
You can read thoughtful reflections on each Antiphon at Thinking Faith here.
Hear all seven O Antiphons in order in this beautiful recording of O Come, O Come Emmanuel by the Invitation Project!
An O Antiphons liturgy from Modern Liturgic