Faith

CNS photo/Lola Gomez

Formed in Christ

Friday, December 13, 2024Faith

Submit a Letter to the Editor

All of us will be very busy during the last days of Advent. Perhaps we could all slow down a bit each day, taking five or 10 minutes to stop everything and just be quiet.

Father Robert M.
O'Grady

This season of joyful expectation or waiting in joyful hope prepares us for the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Admittedly, it is very challenging to "wait" when we are surrounded by the "already here." And we are, in most cases, busy ourselves looking for gifts (just the right one, of course), sending our Christmas greetings to those near and far, getting the home ready for seasonal guests and family events, and . . . Add your own here!
We are pretty much through the first phase of the Advent season, which runs from the first Sunday of Advent through Dec. 16. Another marking point is the third Sunday -- Gaudete Sunday -- usually marked by the rose-colored vesture of the priest and deacon, and the similarly colored candle on your parish or family advent wreath. That third Sunday's Gospel always speaks about the relationship between John the Baptist and his more famous and important cousin, Jesus.
The fourth Sunday in all three years of the Lectionary cycles makes Mary and those events immediately preceding the birth of the Lord central to our prayer, with both the Gospel and the prayers of the Mass assigned in the Missal.
Since Dec. 17 is almost upon us, let's look at some of the texts the church gives us for these last days of Advent.

First, both the Missal (Mass prayers) and the Lectionary (book of the readings) provide the texts for each day. Uniquely, and making it easy to line things up, the days are given by their date, e.g. Dec. 17, Dec. 18, etc., through Dec. 24 in the morning. The character and tone of the prayers and readings focus our minds and hearts on the rapidly approaching celebration of the birth of Jesus.
These days are also marked by the "O Antiphons," centuries-old verses that apply a title that our Jewish ancestors in the faith applied to God and which we now apply to His Son, Jesus. Initially written as the verses introducing and ending the Canticle of Mary, or the Magnificat, at Vespers or Evening Prayer of the church, they have also been used as the verse for the Gospel acclamation of these days. At Masses throughout the Advent season, you are singing them in the familiar Advent hymn "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." In the hymn, they are arranged a bit differently and translated quite differently, but they're all there.
Here they are in both English and Latin in their original order.
Dec. 17 -- "O Wisdom" ("O Sapientia")
Dec. 18 -- "O Lord of might" ("O Adonai")
Dec. 19 -- "O Root of Jesse" ("O Radix Jesse")
Dec. 20 -- "O Key of David" ("O Clavis David")
Dec. 21 -- "O Rising Sun" ("O Oriens")
Dec. 22 -- "O King of the Nations" ("O Rex gentium")
Dec. 23 -- "O God with us" ("O Emmanuel")
Apparently, the author of the antiphons had an additional message for us. If you place together all the first words after O in the Latin version, you get SARCORE, and if you reverse them, EROCRAS. This is a message for us for the morning of Dec. 24 -- "I will be tomorrow."
The author, likely an anonymous monk, searched the Scriptures for these texts about the Father of Jesus and applied them to Jesus himself. As if to "guarantee" the application of the divine titles to Jesus, the author arranges them so that Jesus verifies them by "saying" to us, "Tomorrow, I shall be among you," or making flesh the very last title, Emmanuel, which means "God is with us."
All of us will be very busy during the last days of Advent. Perhaps we could all slow down a bit each day, taking five or 10 minutes to stop everything and just be quiet. If your parish church or another church is open, drop in for a few of those minutes. There is probably a creche inside or outside of the church. Most likely, though nothing requires it, the infant is not yet there. No matter its size, how many figures, or its prominence inside or outside, the scene will help us focus on what Advent is about.
If there is a Missalette available, you could also check the prayers and readings of the day.
Even if you cannot stop at a church, you probably can find some prayers and devotions (www.usccb.org/resources/2024-advent-calendar), the readings for Dec. 17 (bible.usccb.org), or take a deeper dive into the O Antiphons (catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Advent-O-Antiphons.htm).