Second Sunday in Advent

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear!
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

Based on “O” Antiphons,
Latin, 9th century

Music in Advent: the “O!” Antiphons
During the season of Advent, the music from liturgy to liturgy and week to week will be much more united in character than it is during Ordinary Time. We are using different Mass Acclamations, our Kyrie and Alleluia are based on a familiar Advent carol (“O Come, Divine Messiah,” which we sang at the closing for most of last weekend’s liturgies,) and we will use the same ancient hymn at the Entrance for all four Sundays, with different verses each week.
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is one of the best-known and best-loved Advent hymns of all time. What many people do not know is that it is, in its original form, over 1200 years old: it was a Gregorian Chant hymn in Latin (“Veni, veni, Emmanuel”) commonly sung by monks to count down the final week leading to Christmas Day. The verse we now know best and sing first in our version of the hymn would have been the antiphon for December 23, the last evening before the Nativity celebrations begun.

Each of the seven verses, in the Latin, began with an invocation of a different title for the Messiah: “O Key of David!” “O Root of Jesse!” “O Dayspring!” and so on. These texts have become an integral part of much of our Advent hymnody: during this season, we will also sing two different contemporary settings of the same text: “For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits…” (#336 in our hymnal) takes its refrain from Psalm 95 but its verses from the O Antiphons. “Maranatha, Lord Messiah!” by Kathy Powell (#324 in our hymnal) removes the word “O!” from the beginning of each verse, but they still follow the pattern of the original, even to re-placing “Come, Emmanuel” in its original spot in verse 7.

Enjoy these hymns, as we raise our voices in song to prepare for the Lord’s coming!