Sunday December 17 — “It is the 3 strange angels . . . ”
The “O Antiphons” are one of the few song sets from the Breviary of the monastic liturgical hours. They bring holy wisdom to bear on this year’s season of fear and mean spirits to open our imaginations to hope that connects our 2017 with centuries of grace, a reminder that our hard times come to us as part of a vast historical fabric, deeper by far than the labors of the women and men who wrestle with each days news-worthy events. When I follow the news and bring my 2017 awareness into these antiphons, they — their Gregorian Chant and Latin poetry and translations into my own language — my spirit finds a ground in history and beauty and I find that I walk this world with a more upright spine and attentive senses.
May these prayers do something like that for you too.
blessings each of the “O” 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