O ADONAI

"O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, streth out your might hand to set us free."

Music from the Dominican student brothers in Oxford

Isaiah's prophecy: "But He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land's afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips" (11:4-5); 


"Indeed the Lord will be there with us, majestic; yes the Lord our judge, the Lord our lawgive, the Lord our king, he it is who will save us" (33:22).

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." 

Music from the Dominican student brothers in Oxford

Isaiah's prophecy: "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strenth, 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)

The Octave before Christmas

Now that we have gone through all of the Old and New Testament readings leading up to the birth of Christ, we turn our focus to the O Antiphons. The O Antiphons have been a liturgical tradition since the time of the early Church. There are eight of them (thus the word octave) and so we begin the tradition on the 17th and conclude it on the 23rd right before Christmas Eve. Each antiphon emphasizes a title for the Messiah. At the same time, each title also refers to the prophecy of Isaiah of the coming Messiah.

They are:


O Sapientia - Jesus is Wisdom
O Adonai - Jesus is Lord
O Radix Jesse - Jesus is Flower of Jesse
O Clavis David - Jesus is Key of David
O Oriens - Jesus is the Radiant Dawn
O Rex Gentium - Jesus is King of the Gentiles
O Emmanuel - "God with us" Jesus is Light of the World

According to Professor Robert Greenberg of the San Fancisco Conservatory of Music, these antiphons were arranged by the Benedictine monks in this way for a reason. Looking at the first letter of each title beginning with Emmanuel and going back from the 23rd to the 17th, it spells EROCRAS - forming the Latin phrase ero cras, which means "Tomorrow I will come." And so we will see as we build up to Christmas through the O Antiphons, we build up to the coming of Christ - not only his first coming, but also for His second coming when the true reality of the world and his Kingship will be unveiled!

Each day of this octave before Christmas, I will post the antiphon as well as the scripture supporting it and the liturgical music that is still sung in the Church building up to the Eve of the great feast of Christmas. Of course, it is all in Latin, but hopefully my descriptions will make it more meaningful!

Most of this information was taken from: Catholic Eduction