Preparing Our Hearts for Christmas: O Oriens
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.
This antiphon is particularly meaningful for me right now as the motif of light and darkness have been playing around in my head a lot this Advent. You can read some of my thoughts about this Here.
December 21st: O Oriens
“O Morning Star, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death."
Click here to hear this antiphon in Latin.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2)
May the Morning Star, the “Life-Light”, Jesus, the light of the world, come to each of us this day and pierce our darkness.
Rejoicing in the journey - Bethany
EDIT: I just realized that today is the Winter Solstice and that this antiphon about light falls exactly on the shortest day of the year - so appropriate. I pray that even though this day is short and filled with physical darkness that it would be filled with spiritual light for each of you.
Photograph by Beth Stedman