We received this email from our Director of Liturgy yesterday, and I decided to post it in a blog because of its richness.

Maranatha, Come Lord, Jesus!

"On December 17th, the Church’s Advent liturgy begins to focus in a particular way on the Nativity of the Lord.  The prayers, readings, and preface at Mass as well as the readings, antiphons for the Gospel canticles, intercessions, and prayers at the Liturgy of the Hours concentrate more resolutely than during the preceding days of Advent on the coming feast of the Nativity of the Lord.

The great “O Antiphons” have a particular role in these days as they have been used for centuries as the antiphons for the Magnificat.  Each antiphon, always sung in a very similar melody, begins with a title of Christ, usually taken from the Old Testament, and followed by the petition that he come to us (veni) and act on our behalf:

December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
December 19: O Radix Iesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Daystar) [after this date, the days begin to get longer]
December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O God-with-Us)

When taken together from the last title to the first, the first letters of each title form the wonderful Latin acrostic:

Emmanuel
Rex
Oriens

Clavis
Radix
Adonai
Sapientia

They form the Lord’s response to the Church’s ardent petition that he come (veni):

Ero cras (I will be there tomorrow)!"

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