Posts Tagged ‘church traditions’

Preparing Our Hearts for Christmas: O Adonai

December 18th, 2008

The O Antiphons are a set of liturgical prayers prayed during evening prayers over the last few days of Advent. They are a beautiful way to prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming, so I’m sharing them with you each day for the next week, along with some scripture verses and my own short prayer for each day.

Read this post to learn more about the O Antiphons.

December 18th: O Adonai

“O Adonai, the leader of the House of Israel,
who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush
and gave him the law on Sinai:
Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.”

Click here to hear this antiphon in Latin.

“… but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.” (Isaiah 11:4-5)

“For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our king; he will save us.” (Isaiah 33:22)

May Adonai, the Lord of lords, the high judge, rich in mercy, come to each of us this day and in his power bring peace and redemption to all.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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Preparing Our Hearts for Christmas

December 17th, 2008

Personally I had never heard of the O Antiphon’s until recently, and I am guessing that many of you have never heard of them either. So, since today is the day when the Advent Antiphons begin being read during Vespers (evening prayer) I thought it would be a good time for us to learn about them together.

The word antiphon means response (the literal Greek is “opposite” “voice”). Antiphons are a form of call and response usually song or chanted during a religious service (such as Vespers or Mass). The O Antiphons are a specific set of liturgical prayers said or sung during the last few days of Advent. There are 7 parts to the O Antiphons and traditionally one part is said each of the last 7 days before Christmas Eve. Each antiphon focuses on a particular name of Jesus taken from the prophecies of the Old Testament, particularly the prophecies of Isaiah. Here are each of the seven in order:

December 17th: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18th: O Adonai (O Adonai)
December 19th: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20th: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21st: O Oriens (O Morning Star)
December 22nd: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
December 23rd: O Emmanuel (O Emmanuel)

The first letters of each of the titles taken backwards spell out the Latin “Ero Cras” which means “Tomorrow, I come.” You may have recognized as you read these that the song “O come, O come, Emmanuel” was written based on these antiphons.

The history of the O Antiphons is not entirely clear, but we do have references to them as far back as the 6th century and we know that by the 8th century they were commonly used in Rome and many other churches and monasteries.

I think this tradition of the O Antiphons is a truly beautiful way of engaging in Advent and calling forth the coming of Christ Jesus. So, over the next seven days I will post each of the seven antiphons along with scripture verses to go with them. I hope you find them as meaningful as I do.

Here’s the first one…

December 17: O Sapientia

“O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.”

Click here to hear this antiphon in Latin.

“The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2-3)

“…he is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.” (Isaiah 28:29)

May Jesus, wisdom himself, the origin and keeper of all insight and understanding, come to each of us this day.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

photograph by Beth Stedman

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Passing of the Peace

February 21st, 2008

On Sunday afternoon Bryan and I hung out and went to coffee with our new friends, David and Sarah. It was a nice time of getting to know them a little bit better. At one point in the conversation we started talking about church and they shared with us a little bit about the church that they went to in the states. They shared that their church in the states had really tried to incorporate a variety of things from different Christian traditions and that they really liked that and they shared particularly that the church had practiced something called “passing of the peace” and that it was something they particularly like. I had experienced this concept of passing of the peace once before when Bryan and I went to an Anglican Christmas Eve service and I had enjoyed it even though it was something new to me. So, I decide to look it up and find out a little bit more about the idea.

I did a quick google search and learned a little more about this practice. Basically the idea is that at some point during the service usually at the end or just before communion the congregation takes time to greet each other by saying “The peace of the Lord be with you” and replying to one another with “and also with you.”

I like this idea. I think partly because I’m drawn to liturgical styles of worship but also because I think there is value in physical representations of theological truth, physical reminders of theological truth. Christ is with us and He has given us His peace. We are to be His people of peace in the world. What a wonderful reminder of these things it would be to turn each week to a fellow brother or sister in Christ and say “the peace of the Lord be with you” and hear them replay “and also with you”. We are to be people of reconciliation and peace and that should start first with our relationship with one another among the body of Christ.

Some of the articles I read talked about what a powerful experience of reconciliation passing of the peace could be… For example… Perhaps I have a disagreement with someone in the church, or I’m angry with someone in the church or feel hurt by and betrayed by someone in the church – we are all human and when we live in community we are bound to not get along and have these sorts of conflicts – but then I come to the passing of the peace and I am reminded that this other person is just as much a part of Christ’s body as I am and they deserve the peace of the Lord just as much as I do. And so in taking their hand and saying “the peace of the Lord be with you” I am taking the first step in reconciliation and the first step in peace. This idea of having a time like this to act out Christ’s peace to one another seems incredibly powerful to me.

I think one of my favorite articles I read about this was this one if you want to read more about this idea.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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