O!

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Refrain
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee,
O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Refrain

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Refrain

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Refrain

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Refrain

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Refrain

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

Refrain

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Refrain

Fr. John Mason Neale

I've not been very good at writing reflections this year. The weight of confusion and disillusionment has lent upon me rather heavily as well as trying to meet the demands of necessity that my wonderful students make of me. I confess that I've not been especially well in my mind this year with depression hitting me rather hard; certainly spirituality has been very difficult to cultivate. However, I am going to make an effort to try and reflect upon the Seven Advent Antiphons and publish them here.

These wonderful Antiphons accompany the Song of Our Lady, the Magnificat from 17th - 23rd December. Most people are familiar with them as the verses of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, yet their usage as Antiphons seems to be somewhat laid aside within the CofE. The Magnificat is said or sung every Evening, so it is easy for the words to become jaded - if we allow them to. The Antiphons should help us out by giving a colour to that text.

So then, it seems profitable to translate the Antiphons from Latin into English myself, meditate on these and try to see what colours Our Lady's song receives as we move towards the Feast of the Nativity. I shall thus attempt to make my first post on 17th December.