Dear Faith Family,
It's hard to believe that we are on Advent's home stretch! Kids get out of school in just a day or two, then, before you know it, the morning that has garnered so much of our attention, efforts, and even anxiousness over the last month will finally be here! And then, on that morning of mornings, most will be up early in the middle of a half-groggy haze while a frantic tearing into the treasures built up under our trees ends in the living room covered in paper and ribbon shrapnel. All this before we splurge on sweets and family staples as we move from one gathering to the next. The thought of it all rises in me a mixture of elation and angst!
While much of life seems too swift, it is even more true of the final sprint to Christmas morning. In every good story and song, the pace quickens, building to the crescendo, which is why I want to invite you to join me in an Advent practice we started a few years ago. A habit meant to help us do what we've been doing all month: slow down and keep awake these last days before Christmas rather than be swept up by them.
In the first centuries after Christ's resurrection, our faith forerunners developed a custom of praying seven great prayers to call afresh on Jesus to "come." These prayers are prayed without our customary designations for Christ; instead, they address Jesus by titles found in the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah: "O Wisdom!" "O Root of Jesse!" "O Emmanuel!" etc.
They called these prayers the "O Antiphons," for they are sung as much as prayed. Seven brief songs call us into the crescendoing anticipation of our salvation needed and provided.
Priest and poet Malcome Guite explains their design and aid for you and me this way.
"Each antiphone begins with the invocation 'O' and then calls on Christ, although never by name. The mysterious titles and emblems given him from the pages of the Old Testament touch our deepest needs and intuitions; then each antiphon prays the great Advent verb, Veni, 'Come!'
There is, I think, both wisdom and humility in this strange abstention from the name of Christ in a Christian prayer. Of course, these prayers are composed AD...but in a sense, Advent itself is always BC! The whole purpose of Advent is to be for a moment fully and consciously Before Christ...Whoever compiled these prayers was able, imaginatively, to write 'BC,' perhaps saying to themselves: 'If I hadn't heard of Christ, and didn't know the name of Jesus, I would still long for a savior. I would still need someone to come. Who would I need? I would need a gift of Wisdom, I would need a Light, a King, a Root, a Key, a Flame.' And poring over the pages of the Old Testament, they would find all these things promised in the coming of Christ. By calling on Christ using each of these seven several gifts and prophecies, we learn afresh the meaning of a perhaps too familiar name.
It might be a good Advent exercise, and paradoxically an aid to sharing the faith if, for a season, we didn't rush in our conversation to refer to the known name, the predigested knowledge, the formulae of our faith, but waited alongside our non-Christian neighbors, who are, of course, living 'BC.' We should perhaps count ourselves among the people who walk in darkness but look for a marvelous light."
The O Antiphones officially began yesterday (the 17th) and will continue through the 23rd. We'll post them in our Collective Prayers and send a push reminder daily via the app.
So today, amid the prayers of the past, take a moment and consider Guite's exhortation to ponder afresh, "Who do you need to come this Christmas?" and "Whose arrival is my friend...my family member...my neighbor awaiting?" and find in Jesus' arriving of both!
Love you, faith family! Happy Advent, Merry Christmas, and God bless.