16 December 2010
Reminder: the Great O Antiphons
The Great O Antiphons, used to frame the Magnificat in Vespers in the days before Christmas, begin tomorrow evening with O Wisdom. The Treasury includes them in the daily propers section. As each of these Old Testament names for God is prayed, and Christ is invoked to come to us, the clarity of whom the Blessed Mother bore is driven home in an unmistakable way, climaxing in the confession that He is Emmanuel, God with us. The Latin titles read backwards announce: ERO CRAS - I'll be [here] tomorrow, which is very fitting as the O Antiphons conclude upon December 23.
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3 comments:
What? I'm shocked! I'm aghast! I faint! I fall down the stairs! Ich bin erstaunt! Unglaublich!
No credit to the Benedictines, who, besides single-handedly saving Western civilisation, originated the now standard version of the O antiphons series 17-23 December!?!?!
It pains a Lutheran to credit monks...unless they are Augustinian Eremites...
Well how about this to feel better about it? Remember, Luther's sympathetic Augustinian superior, Johann von Staupitz, of whom Luther wrote he would have gone to hell without him, went Benedictine in 1522 and became abbot at Stift Sankt Peter in Salzburg, and even though he remained RC nonetheless his works ended up on the Index librorum prohibitorum by dint of his association with Luther and the action of Paul IV in 1559.
Judas H Priest OSB, he even has a Commemoration in our current calendar, for 8 November!
Although why 8 November I do not know. Why it isn't his dies natalis, 28 December, is clear because that's already the Feast of the Holy Innocents, but I have no idea why 8 November was chosen as Plan B. Usually it's because of something significant relating to the person on the date, but I don't know what it was in this case.
Nonetheless, there's your OK re the SOBs, er OSBs! You don't want to get to heaven and have Godfrey give you an impromptu history lecture then drag out all sorts of stuff for you to read!
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