...And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together....but encouraging one another....
Hebrews 10.24-25
It is usually sung on 17th December, at vespers, the others following every evening until the day before Christmas Eve.
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.
Here is the entry from https://www.themathesontrust.org/library/the-o-antiphons
O Sapientia: “O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation.”
Isaiah had prophesied,
“The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.” (11:2-3)
“Wonderful is His counsel and great is His wisdom.” (28:29).
And here is the antiphon sung by Cantate Regensburg
The suggestion is that you read the words of the antiphon, and the related prophesies, and listen to the music once or twice. Then give yourself at least five minutes to reflect. Make a note of what comes to mind.
Then listen to the music again.
You could commit the words of the antiphon to memory, and use them as a starter for prayer through the week.
For the next 5 Thursdays, we shall be reflecting on the 'O' Antiphons. I have extracted some information from wikipedia, and also given a link where all the antiphons can be found.
The plan will be to have a look at the translation and background for each antiphon, listen to it twice through (they are very short), spend about 5 minutes thinking (and maybe jotting down any ideas) and finally sharing anything if we want to. We'll finish by listening through again maybe, or whatever seems good at the time.
I found that the words of the antiphon make a useful 'hook' for prayers during the week.
All the antiphons can be found by
following this link;
Other source;
Wikipedia which is where the information below comes from;
The O Antiphons (also known as the Great
Advent Antiphons or Great Os) are Magnificatantiphons used at vespers on the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. They likely date to
sixth-century Italy, when Boethius refers to the text in The Consolation of
Philosophy. They subsequently became one of the key musical
features of the days leading up to Christmas.
There were many later traditions
throughout the Middle Ages surrounding
their performance, and Amalarius wrote a detailed commentary
on them in the ninth century.
The first letters of the titles, from
last to first, appear to form a Latin acrostic, Ero cras, meaning 'Tomorrow,
I will be [there]', mirroring the theme of the antiphons. This is formed from
the first letter of each title – Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia.
Such acrostics were popular among early medieval writers, and some scholars
have taken this as further evidence for their antiquity, but this view is not
universally accepted.
Each antiphon has the following structure:
·a Messianic title preceded by "O". Example: "O
Wisdom"
·elaboration of the title: "coming forth from the mouth of
the Most High, reaching from one end to
the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things"
·the verb "come"
·elaboration of the request to come: "and teach us the way
of prudence”
Next week we'll start a series on the 'O' Antiphons... if you want to find out more before then, well, google, google google!
Music
It it is well with my soul
In Paradisum - Faure
In paradisum deducant te angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.
"May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once (a) poor (man), may you have eternal rest."
