Posted on 12/19/2004 4:18:38 PM PST by sionnsar
I’ve been fighting a cold, and not up to putting too much work into the blog today. So for today, just the collects and today’s O Antiphon. More posts with artwork and other Advent meditations will follow tomorrow, God willing.
Today’s Antiphon: O Root of Jesse
O Root of Jesse,
who stand as a sign for the people,
kings stand silent in your presence,
whom the nations will worship:
come to set us free,
put it off no longer.
The Traditional Collect:
O LORD, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
ECUSA 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.
———-
You can read Dr. Peter Toon’s reflections on the traditional Advent 4 collect here.
A little “ear candy” for Advent (and some reading to do while listening)
Another Anglican blog, ”Conjectures of a Guilty Seminarian,” has this “Advent Ear Candy” with scores and audio links for the “O Antiphons” COOL! Happy listening.
For the sake of ease, here are the links to the first 3 antiphons:
O Sapientia
O Adonai
O Radix Jesse
Blogging and the internet are so much fun!
By the way, if you’re following the Anglican Crisis, Lee’s term paper on Jurisdictional Authority and the Episcopate [Lee is the “guilty seminarian"] looks to be interesting and helpful reading.
The Advent Antiphons
Being low church evangelical with little exposure to Anglo-catholicism, I confess to knowing very little about some of the rich liturgical tradition of Anglicanism. Thankfully there are some wonderful Anglo-Catholic bloggers out there from whom I am learning. Two different blogs I read regularly have posted the first “O Antiphons” for the final week of Advent:
Fr. Christopher Cantrell (Fort Worth) and his “Apostolicity” blog
Todd Granger ”The Confessing Reader”
Here is Todd’s brief summary of the history of these antiphons:
The “O Antiphons”, a collection of antiphons sung with the Magnificat at Vespers from 17 to 23 December in the Roman Rite, date back at least to the reign of Charlemagne, and there is an English poem based on them by Cynewulf (fl. 8th century). The well-known Advent hymn, “O come, O come, Emmanuel” (Veni, veni, Emanuel), is a metrical text based on the antiphons.
The initial letters of the antiphons, “ignoring the “O”, spell out the reverse acrostic, ‘SARCORE’ - ‘ero cras’, ‘I shall be [with you] tomorrow’, a hidden counterpart of the joyful iteration of ‘cras’ which rings like a bell through the liturgy of the last week of Advent.” (The New Oxford Book of Carols, ed. Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, p. 45)
I will try to remember to post the remaining Antiphons here daily as I learn to appreciate these wonderful prayers.
—————
O Sapientia
quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter,
suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
O Wisdom,
which camest out of the mouth of the most High,
and reachest from one end to another,
mightily and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.
O Adonai
O Adonai,
et dux domus Israël,
qui Moyse in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
O Mighty Lord,
and leader of the house of Israël,
who appeared to Moses in the burning bush,
and on Sinai gave him the law,
come to redeem us with outstretched arm.
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