Over the next 7 days, beginning Dec. 17th, the beautiful "O Antiphons" will be sung, each day featuring a distinct antiphon drawn from the Old Testament prophesies. These ancient antiphons help us reflect on the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

THE “O” ANTIPHONS
Chanted at the beginning and end of the Magnificat during Vespers the seven days before Christmas Eve. Each day, a different antiphon announces the coming of Christ by invoking a title given to Him from the Old Testament prophesies:

O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
O Adonai (O Lord of the Covenant)
O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
O Clavis David (O Key of David)
O Oriens (O Radiant Dawn)
O Rex Gentium (O King of Nations)
O Emmanuel (O Emmanuel, God with us)

And when the first letters of each of the antiphons are written starting from the end, we
have the Latin words Ero Cras, which means: “Tomorrow I will be there.”
Some think that perhaps the “O Antiphons” were composed by a monk somewhere
between the sixth and eighth centuries, but in truth, we really don’t know their origin. All
we know is that they are exceptionally beautiful and that they have been an important
part of Advent for many centuries.

“O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL”
The earliest surviving evidence of the hymn's text is in the seventh edition of
Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, which was published in Cologne in 1710. It first
appeared as a hymn in the English-speaking world about 1854. The English words used
in it are based on a Latin paraphrase of the great “O Antiphons.” The melody, however,
dates back to at least the fifteenth century and was originally part of a Franciscan funeral
processional. Thomas Helmore, who edited the 1854 hymnal, apparently discovered the
melody and saw in it an “unmistakable sense of solemn expectancy, not only for the
Nativity of Christ, but also for his Second Coming as judge and as savior,” for a logical
link exists “between the theology of Advent and a procession marking the passage from
death to eternal life.” The present English translation was made by Thomas Alexander
Lacey in 1906.