Dec 17 – the first day as Advent folds toward Christmas O Antiphon # 1 – – “O Sapientia” (O Wisdom)

Monday December 17  — “It is the 3 strange angels . . . ”

The “O Antiphons” are one of the few song sets from the seven monastic liturgical hours.  Their poetry and song bring Advent wisdom to bear on this  season of fear and meanness; they can open our imaginations out into hope for the wide world.   They remind us that our hard times come to us as only part of a vast historical fabric, that hope runs deeper by far than the weariness of the women and men among whom we live.  When I follow the news and bring my 2018 awareness into the antiphons, they help me walk the world a little taller and with more attentive senses.

May these prayers do something like that for you too.

Blessings for each of the coming seven “O antiphon” days.

 

john sj

Today’s Post  “the three strange angels”
D. H. Lawrence, of Lady Chatterley fame, wrote poetry as well.

Here is an Advent prayer if there ever was one.

“What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody who wants to do us harm.
No, no, it is the three strange angels. Admit them, admit them.”

Today’s Post  December 17  — “O Sapientia”  

“O wisdom, coming forth from the Most High, filling all creation and reigning to the ends of the earth; come and teach us the way of truth.”

“O Sapientia,  quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter,suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.”

To listen to the Antiphon sung in Gregorian Chant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6zaiZxJIpU

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