Tomorrow, if not today

Praying the O Antiphons

Photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash

One of my favorite Advent traditions is the chanting of the O Antiphons, which are probably best known in the English-speaking world as the verses of the hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel.^[1] The precise origin of the O Antiphons is unknown. There is speculation that they were composed in Italy as early as the 6^th century, and they were widely used in the Western Church by the 8^th century.

Traditionally, the O Antiphons are sung before and after the Magnificat (The Song of Mary) at Vespers on the last seven days of Advent: December 17 – December 23. Each antiphon is appointed for a particular day, and follows a similar structure:

· A messianic title from scripture

· An elaboration of the title

· The request “to come”

· An elaboration of the request

The O Antiphons, in the translation found in the Church of England’s Common Worship, are as follows:

17 December – O Sapientia

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.   (Ecclesiasticus 24.3; Wisdom 8.1)

18 December – O Adonai

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,
who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush
and gave him the law on Sinai:
Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.   (Exodus 3.2; 24.12)

19 December – 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.   (Isaiah 11.10; 45.14; 52.15; Romans 15.12)

20 December – O Clavis David

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.   (Isaiah 22.22; 42.7)

21 December – O Oriens

O Morning Star,
splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:
Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness
and the shadow of death.    (Malachi 4.2)

22 December – 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.   (Isaiah 28.16; Ephesians 2.14)

23 December – O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, our King and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.  (Isaiah 7.14)

The first letters of the titles (in reverse order, from last to first) form an acrostic in the original Latin version of the O Antiphons. Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia: Ero cras, which means “Tomorrow, I will be [there].” There is a plaintive urgency in the O Antiphons, an expression of our heart’s desire for the salvation of the world, along with an implicit hope for the fulfillment of this desire; if not today, then tomorrow.

As an act of worship and subject of contemplation, the power of the O Antiphons lies in the asking: “Come!” This asking forms our desires and trains our spiritual senses to perceive that which we desire – to see the signs of its awakening in our hearts and in the world. There is a relationship between the focus of our attention, the intensity of our desire, and our capacity to perceive its fulfillment. “Meditation gives birth to perseverance, and perseverance ends in perception, and what is accomplished with perception cannot easily be rooted out.”^[2] We become that for which we pray.

What we desire is not for ourselves alone, but for the whole world. What we desire is fulfilled in the coming of Christ; not only in Jesus two thousand years ago, but also in us – tomorrow, if not today. That is the mystery of Christmas, the coming of Christ, for which the O Antiphons prepare us. “Here, in time, we are celebrating the eternal birth which God the Father bore and bears unceasingly in eternity, because this same birth is now born in time, in human nature. St. Augustine says, ‘What does it avail me that this birth is always happening, if it does not happen in me? That it should happen in me is what matters.’ We shall therefore speak of this birth, of how it may take place in us.”^[3]

That this birth should take place in us is, I think, the deepest meaning of the Advent Collect:

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.^[4]

Take time during this holy season to meditate on the O Antiphons. Let them become your prayer that Christ may be born in you; tomorrow, if not today.

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^[1] The Hymnal 1982 (New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 1985), Hymn 56

^[2] St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent in The Classics of Western Spirituality series (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), p. 144.

^[3] Meister Eckhart, Dum Medium Silentium, Sermon on Wisdom 18:14, in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, trans. and ed., Maurice O’C. Walsh (Crossroad: 2009), p. 29.

^[4] Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 212.