O Antiphon House: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

This is our O Antiphon House. The O Antiphons are those which are said with the Magnificat in Evening Prayer (Vespers). If you are not used to praying with antiphons, it goes like this.

Ant. O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation. 

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. 

 From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name. 

 He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation. 

 He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit 

 He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly. 

 He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty. 

 He has come to the help of his servant Israelfor he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever. 

 Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever. Amen. 

Ant. O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation.

Or sometimes, you might pray the antiphon between each verse.

The antiphons for the evenings between December 17, and December 23 always begin with an invocation of Jesus, each one addressing him by a different title. The song, O Come, O Come Emmanuel is basically a list of all these antiphons. As you see above, the one for tonight is "O Wisdom."

Behind each of the little doors on the O Antiphon House, there is symbol representing whatever the antiphon of the evening is, so we take one off each day during our prayer time, and we sing the part of the song that goes with the day, and then the day before, and the day before until on the 23rd, we sing the whole song.

A few years ago, I wrote a series on the O Antiphons here. Unfortunately, they will show up in reverse order.

AMDG