Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: Advent - the promise and power of yearning

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Advent - the promise and power of yearning

As we enter into the last week of Advent, we are blessed with the riches of the ancient liturgical prayers known as the “O Antiphons”.

Traditionally these antiphons were prayed in the Divine Office during Vespers as part of the Magnificat Antiphon. This custom goes back to around the 6th century or so. But for those of you who do not pray the Divine Office, you will notice that these have also become the Gospel Acclamation for daily Mass.

These antiphons really help us to understand the prophecies of the Messiah, and give us a solid scriptural context to understand what we celebrate every Christmas. But at the same time, the antiphons are placed in a particular order that emphasises for us the stages of God’s revelation of himself in the Old Testament and brings us into sharing this divine drama so that the intense longing and yearnings expressed in the antiphons become our own personal prayers. As each day goes on, the invocation at the end of the antiphon increases in intensity.

These antiphons are also the basis for the Christmas carol “O come Emmanuel” - which can also be a beautiful song to sing everyday during this last week of Advent, so that we can soak in the prophecies of scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us.

The website Rorate Caeli has an excellent post about the history and meaning of the antiphons, and there is a chart made by a monk who connected each of the antiphons to a particular mystery of the life of Christ and connects it to the gifts of the Holy Spirit as outlined in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 11:2-3), which is the traditional list of gifts of the Spirit that we receive at Confirmation. So this may be a different way for you to use the O Antiphons for personal meditation in preparation for Christmas.

Christmas is so much more than just warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings. The Liturgy teaches us there is something far more powerful, mysterious, awe inspiring, wonderful and even cosmic that all of us Christians participate in and allow people are invited into - salvation in the Messiah and through Him, united to Him in baptism to become fellow children of God by the mystery of the Incarnation - the Word of God, the Son who became flesh and dwelt among us.

I hope these O Antiphons open you up to the true meaning of Christmas, and in union with the Liturgy you are able to experience the burning desire, the deep yearning, the excitement and the powerful hope of calling upon Jesus to come and save us - to come again in all His glory, and to come flesh within us even now through the Eucharist, as we remember His first coming when he humbled himself as a little child so that we would accept him without fear

Come teach us the way of prudence!

Come and redeem us with outstretched arm!

Come deliver us, and delay no longer!

Come and free those held captive in prison!

Come and free those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death!

Come and save the human race who you made from clay!

Come and save us our Lord and God!

Come Lord Jesus! 🙏

https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-o-antiphons-history-theology-and.html?m=1

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Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.