The Great 'O'Antiphons
Mini Retreat
December 17th to 23rd
Our “Never too late for Advent” message last Saturday clearly resonated with many of you. As a result, we have created a mini-retreat based on the Great ‘O’ Antiphons which you can easily complete in a day during Christmastide.
The ’O’ Antiphons are short chants which have been sung for 19 centuries during the last days of Advent, immediately before the Magnificat at Vespers / Evensong, the night prayer of many churches. They address Christ with seven magnificent Messianic titles, one for each of the final days of Advent, based on the Old Testament prophecies.
Keeping in mind St Thomas Aquinas’ dictum that “when we sing, we pray twice”, we feature some of our favorite musical renditions of each antiphon – including by the Irish Dominicans; the Gloriæ Dei Cantores choir in Orleans Massachusetts; St Martin’s Voices in St Martin-in the-Fields, London; the Benedictine monks of St John’s Abbey and University, Minnesota; the remarkable Pembroke Chapel Choir in Cambridge, UK; Westminster Abbey; and the Benedictine Nuns of Mary Queen of the Apostles Abbey, Missouri.
In addition, we have paired each Antiphon with a thought-provoking poem and reflection by the superb English Anglican priest-poet, Malcolm Guite, along with a link to his personal meditation on each antiphon. Dr Guite bridges the gap between ancient sacred traditions and the grit of contemporary life, using traditional forms to explore timeless truths. These can be read or listened to.
Each of his sonnets is drawn from his anthology, Waiting on the Word, published by Canterbury Press.
His reflections are published on his blog.
Mini Retreat
December 17th to 23rd
Our “Never too late for Advent” message last Saturday clearly resonated with many of you. As a result, we have created a mini-retreat based on the Great ‘O’ Antiphons which you can easily complete in a day during Christmastide.
The ’O’ Antiphons are short chants which have been sung for 19 centuries during the last days of Advent, immediately before the Magnificat at Vespers / Evensong, the night prayer of many churches. They address Christ with seven magnificent Messianic titles, one for each of the final days of Advent, based on the Old Testament prophecies.
Keeping in mind St Thomas Aquinas’ dictum that “when we sing, we pray twice”, we feature some of our favorite musical renditions of each antiphon – including by the Irish Dominicans; the Gloriæ Dei Cantores choir in Orleans Massachusetts; St Martin’s Voices in St Martin-in the-Fields, London; the Benedictine monks of St John’s Abbey and University, Minnesota; the remarkable Pembroke Chapel Choir in Cambridge, UK; Westminster Abbey; and the Benedictine Nuns of Mary Queen of the Apostles Abbey, Missouri.
In addition, we have paired each Antiphon with a thought-provoking poem and reflection by the superb English Anglican priest-poet, Malcolm Guite, along with a link to his personal meditation on each antiphon. Dr Guite bridges the gap between ancient sacred traditions and the grit of contemporary life, using traditional forms to explore timeless truths. These can be read or listened to.
Each of his sonnets is drawn from his anthology, Waiting on the Word, published by Canterbury Press.
His reflections are published on his blog.
December 17th
O Sapientia
O Sapientia
Today, we begin the great 'O' antiphons. These short chants have been an integral part of the Advent Liturgy since the fourth century. They are sung annually before and after the Magnificat during vespers/evensong between 17th and 23rd December. They address Christ with seven magnificent Messianic titles, one for each of the final days of Advent, based on the Old Testament prophecies. The first of these is O Sapientia - O Wisdom. It is sung here by the Irish Dominicans.
TEXT
O sapientia quae ex ore altissimi prodisti attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: Veni ad docendum nos viam prudentie.
O Wisdom, Which camest forth out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things; come and show us the way of understanding.
O SAPIENTIA by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read or listen to the poet's personal reflection on this antiphon
I cannot think unless I have been thought,
Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken.
I cannot teach except as I am taught,
Or break the bread except as I am broken.
O Mind behind the mind through which I seek,
O Light within the light by which I see,
O Word beneath the words with which I speak,
O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me,
O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me,
O Memory of time, reminding me,
My Ground of Being, always grounding me,
My Maker’s Bounding Line, defining me,
Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring,
Come to me now, disguised as everything.
TEXT
O sapientia quae ex ore altissimi prodisti attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: Veni ad docendum nos viam prudentie.
O Wisdom, Which camest forth out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things; come and show us the way of understanding.
O SAPIENTIA by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read or listen to the poet's personal reflection on this antiphon
I cannot think unless I have been thought,
Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken.
I cannot teach except as I am taught,
Or break the bread except as I am broken.
O Mind behind the mind through which I seek,
O Light within the light by which I see,
O Word beneath the words with which I speak,
O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me,
O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me,
O Memory of time, reminding me,
My Ground of Being, always grounding me,
My Maker’s Bounding Line, defining me,
Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring,
Come to me now, disguised as everything.
18th December
O Adonai - O Lord
Sung here by the Gloriæ Dei Cantores, a 40-voice choir based in Orleans, Massachusetts.
O Adonai - O Lord
Sung here by the Gloriæ Dei Cantores, a 40-voice choir based in Orleans, Massachusetts.
O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
O Lord and 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.
O ADONAI by Malcolm Guite
Click here for the poet's own reflection on this antiphon
Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue,
Unseeable, you gave yourself away,
The Adonai, the Tetragramaton
Grew by a wayside in the light of day.
O you who dared to be a tribal God,
To own a language, people and a place,
Who chose to be exploited and betrayed,
If so you might be met with face to face,
Come to us here, who would not find you there,
Who chose to know the skin and not the pith,
Who heard no more than thunder in the air,
Who marked the mere events and not the myth.
Touch the bare branches of our unbelief
And blaze again like fire in every leaf.
O Lord and 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.
O ADONAI by Malcolm Guite
Click here for the poet's own reflection on this antiphon
Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue,
Unseeable, you gave yourself away,
The Adonai, the Tetragramaton
Grew by a wayside in the light of day.
O you who dared to be a tribal God,
To own a language, people and a place,
Who chose to be exploited and betrayed,
If so you might be met with face to face,
Come to us here, who would not find you there,
Who chose to know the skin and not the pith,
Who heard no more than thunder in the air,
Who marked the mere events and not the myth.
Touch the bare branches of our unbelief
And blaze again like fire in every leaf.
December 19th
O RADIX JESSE
O RADIX JESSE
Commissioned by The Church of England for Advent 2025, recordings from contemporary composers offer a new setting of the ancient Advent "O" Antiphons. Composed by Thomas Hewitt Jones, O Radix Jesse is performed here by vocal ensemble, St Martin's Voices, of St-Martin-in-the Fields, London.
TEXT
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem Gentes deprecabuntur:veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths, to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.
O RADIX JESSE by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read and/or listen to the poet's own reflection on this antiphon
All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,
Rose from a root invisible to all.
We knew the virtues once of every weed,
But, severed from the roots of ritual,
We surf the surface of a wide-screen world
And find no virtue in the virtual.
We shrivel on the edges of a wood
Whose heart we once inhabited in love,
Now we have need of you, forgotten Root
The stock and stem of every living thing
Whom once we worshiped in the sacred grove,
For now is winter, now is withering
Unless we let you root us deep within,
Under the ground of being, graft us in.
TEXT
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem Gentes deprecabuntur:veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths, to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.
O RADIX JESSE by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read and/or listen to the poet's own reflection on this antiphon
All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,
Rose from a root invisible to all.
We knew the virtues once of every weed,
But, severed from the roots of ritual,
We surf the surface of a wide-screen world
And find no virtue in the virtual.
We shrivel on the edges of a wood
Whose heart we once inhabited in love,
Now we have need of you, forgotten Root
The stock and stem of every living thing
Whom once we worshiped in the sacred grove,
For now is winter, now is withering
Unless we let you root us deep within,
Under the ground of being, graft us in.
December 20th
O CLAVIS DAVID
O CLAVIS DAVID
This antiphon is sung by the Benedictine monks of St John's Abbey, Minnesota.
TEXT
O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel; qui aperis, et nemo claudit;claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open:come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death
O CLAVIS DAVID by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read/listen to the poet's own reflection on this antiphon.
Even in the darkness where I sit
And huddle in the midst of misery
I can remember freedom, but forget
That every lock must answer to a key,
That each dark clasp, sharp and intricate,
Must find a counter-clasp to meet its guard,
Particular, exact and intimate,
The clutch and catch that meshes with its ward.
I cry out for the key I threw away
That turned and over turned with certain touch
And with the lovely lifting of a latch
Opened my darkness to the light of day.
O come again, come quickly, set me free
Cut to the quick to fit, the master key.
TEXT
O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel; qui aperis, et nemo claudit;claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open:come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death
O CLAVIS DAVID by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read/listen to the poet's own reflection on this antiphon.
Even in the darkness where I sit
And huddle in the midst of misery
I can remember freedom, but forget
That every lock must answer to a key,
That each dark clasp, sharp and intricate,
Must find a counter-clasp to meet its guard,
Particular, exact and intimate,
The clutch and catch that meshes with its ward.
I cry out for the key I threw away
That turned and over turned with certain touch
And with the lovely lifting of a latch
Opened my darkness to the light of day.
O come again, come quickly, set me free
Cut to the quick to fit, the master key.
December 21st
O ORIENS
O ORIENS
This is a stunning setting of the fifth "O" Antiphon, composed by Melissa Dunphy and sung by the remarkable choir of Pembroke College Chapel, directed by Anna Lapwood.
TEXT
O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae: veni, et illumina sedentesin tenebris, et umbra mortis
O Dayspring, splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness: come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
O ORIENS BY MALCOLM GUITE
Click here for the poet's personal reflection on the antiphon
E vidi lume in forme de riviera Paradiso XXX; 61
First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced
The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.
Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
“Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream
For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking”.
TEXT
O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae: veni, et illumina sedentesin tenebris, et umbra mortis
O Dayspring, splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness: come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
O ORIENS BY MALCOLM GUITE
Click here for the poet's personal reflection on the antiphon
E vidi lume in forme de riviera Paradiso XXX; 61
First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced
The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.
Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
“Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream
For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking”.
December 22nd
O REX GENTIUM
O REX GENTIUM
This singing of O Rex Gentium comes from Westminster Abbey.
TEXT
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.O King of the nations, and their desire, the cornerstone making both one, come and save the human race,which you fashioned from clay.
O REX GENTIUM by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read/listen to the poet's own reflection on this antiphon.
O King of our desire whom we despise,
King of the nations never on the throne,
Unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone,
Rejected joiner, making many one,
You have no form or beauty for our eyes,
A King who comes to give away his crown,
A King within our rags of flesh and bone.
We pierce the flesh that pierces our disguise,
For we ourselves are found in you alone.
Come to us now and find in us your throne,
O King within the child within the clay,
O hidden King who shapes us in the play
Of all creation. Shape us for the day
Your coming Kingdom comes into its own.
TEXT
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.O King of the nations, and their desire, the cornerstone making both one, come and save the human race,which you fashioned from clay.
O REX GENTIUM by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read/listen to the poet's own reflection on this antiphon.
O King of our desire whom we despise,
King of the nations never on the throne,
Unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone,
Rejected joiner, making many one,
You have no form or beauty for our eyes,
A King who comes to give away his crown,
A King within our rags of flesh and bone.
We pierce the flesh that pierces our disguise,
For we ourselves are found in you alone.
Come to us now and find in us your throne,
O King within the child within the clay,
O hidden King who shapes us in the play
Of all creation. Shape us for the day
Your coming Kingdom comes into its own.
December 23rd
O Emmanuel
Sung by the Benedictine Nuns of Ephesus Abbey, Missouri.
O Emmanuel
Sung by the Benedictine Nuns of Ephesus Abbey, Missouri.
TEXT
O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.
O come Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver, the hope of the nations and their Saviour:come and save us, O Lord our God.
O EMMANUEL by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read or listen to the poet's own reflection on this antiphon.
O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.
O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.
O come Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver, the hope of the nations and their Saviour:come and save us, O Lord our God.
O EMMANUEL by Malcolm Guite
Click here to read or listen to the poet's own reflection on this antiphon.
O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.