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O Antiphons {Reflections}

by Filed Under: 12 December Saints, Advent, O Antiphons Leave a Comment

The “O” Antiphons

Help prepare us for Christmas by meditating on the Antiphons for Vespers, popularized in the English hymn “O come, Emmanuel” each day from December 17th through 24th.

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE GREAT ANTIPHONS

The Liturgical Year, Dom Guéranger, O.S.B

The Church enters to-day on the seven days, which precede the Vigil of Christmas, and which are known in the Liturgy under the name of the Greater Ferias. The ordinary of the Advent Office becomes more solemn; the Antiphons of the Psalms, both for Lauds and the Hours of the day, are proper, and allude expressly to the great Coming. Every day, at Vespers, is sung a solemn Antiphon, which consists of a fervent prayer to the Messias, whom it addresses by one of the titles given him by the sacred Scriptures.

In the Roman Church, there are seven of these Antiphons, one for each of the Greater Ferias, They are commonly called the O’s of Advent, because they all begin with that interjection. In other Churches, during the Middle Ages, two more were added to these seven; one to our Blessed Lady, O Virgo Virginum; and the other to the Angel Gabriel, O Gabriel; or to St. Thomas the Apostle, whose feast comes during the Greater Ferias; it began O Thoma Didyme [It is more modern than the O Gabriel; but dating from the 13th century, it was almost universally used in its stead.] There were even Churches, where twelve Great Antiphons were sung; that is, besides the nine we have just mentioned, there was Rex Pacifice to our Lord, O mundi Domina to our Lady, and O Hierusalem to the city of the people of God.

The canonical Hour of Vespers has been selected as the most appropriate time for this solemn supplication to our Saviour, because, as the Church sings in one of her hymns, it was in the Evening of the world (vergente mundi vespere) that the Messias came amongst us. These Antiphons are sung at the Magnificat, to show us that the Saviour, whom we expect, is to come to us by Mary. They are sung twice; once before and once after the Canticle, as on Double Feasts, and this to show their great solemnity. In some Churches it was formerly the practice to sing them thrice; that is, before the Canticle, before the Gloria Patri, and after the Sicut erat. Lastly, these admirable Antiphons, which contain the whole pith of the Advent Liturgy, are accompanied by a chant replete with melodious gravity, and by ceremonies of great expressiveness, though, in these latter, there is no uniform practice followed. Let us enter into the spirit of the Church; let us reflect on the great Day which is coming; that thus we may take oar share in these the last and most earnest solicitations of the Church imploring her Spouse to come, and to which He at length yields.

MORE REFLECTIONS:

DECEMBER 17: The Commencement of the Great Antiphons
DECEMBER 17: O Sapientia!
DECEMBER 18: O Adonai!
DECEMBER 18: The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
DECEMBER 19: O Radix Jesse!
DECEMBER 20: O Clavis David!
DECEMBER 21: St. Thomas, Apostle
DECEMBER 21: O Oriens!
DECEMBER 22: O Rex Gentium!
DECEMBER 23: O Emmanuel!

DECEMBER 24: Christmas Eve
Mass

Veni Veni Emmanuel Video with Latin and English Lyrics

Ember Friday in Advent

by Filed Under: 12 December, Advent, Advent Ember Day, Ember Days, Ember Friday in Advent Leave a Comment

While not obligatory, the Ember Days are a holy practice, of great benefit to the Church and to us, and they constitute a solid preparation for the coming of Our Lord. We are encouraged to participate in whatever way we are able.

In diébus illis: Clamábunt ad Dóminum a fácie tribulántis, et mittet eis salvatórem, et propugnatórem, qui líberet eos.

In those days they shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressor, and He shall send them a Savior and a defender to deliver them.

– Isaiah 19:20, from the first Lesson of Ember Saturday in Advent

Ember Wednesday in Advent

by Filed Under: 12 December Saints, Advent, Advent Ember Day, Ember Days, Ember Wednesday in Advent, Fr. Leonard Goffine Leave a Comment

This week contains the Advent Ember Days, which always fall on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of the third week of Advent. The Ember Days take place four times a year, the other occasions being the weeks after Ash Wednesday and Pentecost and the third week of September. The purpose of the Days is to thank God for the gifts of Creation, to ask His help in using them with wisdom and moderation, and to assist those in need, and they are observed by fasting and prayer in addition to the particular liturgies the Church assigns them.

Learn more about Ember Days here.

Ember Days of Advent

by Filed Under: Advent, Advent Ember Day, Ember Days Leave a Comment

The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.

Here’s a catchy rhyme that has been used in English for a couple hundred years to help the faithful remember when four Ember Days occur.

Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy.”

Meaning, the weeks following: Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Feast of St. Lucy.

EMBER DAYS IN ADVENT

The Liturgical Year, Dom Guéranger O.S.B.

Today the Church begins the fast of Quatuor Tempora, or, as we call it, of Ember days: it includes also the Friday and Saturday of this same week. This observance is not peculiar to the Advent liturgy; it is one which has been fixed for each of the four seasons of the ecclesiastical year. We may consider it as one of those practices which the Church took from the Synagogue; for the prophet Zacharias speaks of the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months. Its introduction into the Christian Church would seem to have been made in the apostolic times; such, at least, is the opinion of St. Leo, of St. Isidore of Seville, of Rabanus Maurus, and of several other ancient Christian writers. It is remarkable, on the other hand, that the orientals do not observe this fast.
From the first ages the Quatuor Tempora were kept, in the Roman Church, at the same time of the year as at present. As to the expression, which is not infrequently used in the early writers, of the three times and not the four, we must remember that in the spring, these days always come in the first week of Lent, a period already consecrated to the most rigorous fasting and abstinence, and that consequently they could add nothing to the penitential exercises of that portion of the year.
The intentions, which the Church has in the fast of the Ember days, are the same as those of the Synagogue; namely, to consecrate to God by penance the four seasons of the year. The Ember days of Advent are known, in ecclesiastical antiquity, as the fast of the tenth month; and St. Leo, in one of his sermons on this fast, of which the Church has inserted a passage in the second nocturn of the third Sunday of Advent, tells us that a special fast was fixed for this time of the year, because the fruits of the earth had then all been gathered in, and that it behoved Christians to testify their gratitude to God by a sacrifice of abstinence, thus rendering themselves more worthy to approach to God, the more they were detached from the love of created things. “For fasting,” adds the holy doctor, “has ever been the nourishment of virtue. Abstinence is the source of chaste thoughts, of wise resolutions, and of salutary counsel. By voluntary mortification, the flesh dies to its concupiscence, and the spirit is renewed in virtue. But since fasting alone is not sufficient whereby to secure the soul’s salvation, let us add to it works of mercy towards the poor. Let us make that whihc we retrench from indulgence, serve unto the exercise of virtue. Let the abstinence of him that fasts, become the meal of the poor man.”
Let us, the children of the Church practice what is in our power of these admonitions; and since the actual discipline of Advent is so very mild, let us be so much the more fervent in fulfilling the precept of the fast of the Ember days. By these few exercises which are now required of us, let us keep up within ourselves the zeal of our forefathers for this holy season of Advent. We must never forget that although the interior preparation is what is absolutely essential for our profiting by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, yet this preparation could scarcely be real unless it manifested itself by the exterior practices of religion and penance.
The fast of the Ember days has another object besides that of consecrating the four seasons of the year to God by an act of penance: it has also in view the ordination of the ministers of the Church, which takes place on the Saturday, and of which notice was formerly given to the people during the Mass of the Wednesday. In the Roman Church, the ordination held in the month of December was, for a long time, the most solemn of all; and it would appear, from teh ancient chronicles of the Popes, that, excepting very extraordinary cases, the tenth month was, for several ages, the only time for conferring Holy Orders in Rome. The faithful should unite with the Church in this her intention, and offer to God their fasting and abstinence for the purpose of obtaining worthy ministers of the word and of the Sacraments, and true pastors of the people.

Fasting & Abstinence

Current Practice vs. 1962 Discipline

As a help in understanding the Church’s discipline of fast and abstinence, the following summary of the requirements, both current and those in force in 1962, has been excerpted from the Liturgical Ordo published by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

History of the Ember Days

The Ember Days, which were historically kept four times during the liturgical year, have a venerable history. Here is the explanation from the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia.

The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy. The immediate occasion was the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities: in June for a bountiful harvest, in September for a rich vintage, and in December for the seeding; hence their feriae sementivae, feriae messis, and feri vindimiales. The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. At first the Church in Rome had fasts in June, September, and December; the exact days were not fixed but were announced by the priests. The “Liber Pontificalis” ascribes to Pope Callistus (217-222) a law ordering the fast, but probably it is older. Leo the Great (440-461) considers it an Apostolic institution. When the fourth season was added cannot be ascertained, but Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four. This pope also permitted the conferring of priesthood and deaconship on the Saturdays of ember week–these were formerly given only at Easter. Before Gelasius the ember days were known only in Rome, but after his time their observance spread. They were brought into England by St. Augustine; into Gaul and Germany by the Carlovingians. Spain  adopted  them with the Roman  Liturgy in the eleventh century. They were introduced by St. Charles Borromeo into Milan. The Eastern Church does not know them. The present Roman Missal, in the formulary for the Ember days, retains in part the old practice of lessons from Scripture in addition to the ordinary two: for theWednesdays three, for the Saturdays six, and seven for the Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God.

Keeping with Tradition

Catholics who have access to the traditional liturgy outside of Sundays are encouraged to make a special point to assist at Mass on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week. In addition to keeping the fasting and abstinence prescriptions on these days, the faithful should be attentive to the special collects and readings that are assigned on these days.

Here, for instance, are the Collects from Wednesday.

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the coming solemnity of our redemp­ tion may both confer upon us assistance in this present life and bestow the rewards of everlasting blessedness. Through our Lord.

—-

“Unless you do penance, you shall likewise perish.” (Lk. 13:5)

Resources:

Advent Wreath

by Filed Under: 11 November, 12 December, Advent 19 Comments

Advent begins this Saturday evening with Sunday Vespers I.  We are finalizing the devotions that we observe within our home during this liturgical season.   Among those devotions is a more re-commitment to the Divine Office for those of Confirmation age.

One of the most familiar of Advent customs is, of course, the Advent wreath.  It is a simple and beautiful way of marking the progression of the Advent season and for preparing for the great feast of the Nativity of Our Lord.

The Advent wreath is exactly what the word implies, a wreath of evergreens (yew or fir or laurel), made in various sizes. It is either suspended from the ceiling or placed on a table, usually in front of the family shrine. Fastened to the wreath are four candles standing upright, at equal distances. These candles represent the four weeks of Advent.

Daily at a certain time (usually in the evening), the family gathers for a short religious exercise. Every Sunday of Advent one more candle is lit, until all four candles shed their cheerful light to announce the approaching birthday of the Lord. All other lights are extinguished in the room, and only the gentle glow of the live candles illuminates the darkness. After some prayers, which are recited for the grace of a good and holy preparation for Christmas, the family sings one of the traditional Advent hymns or a song in honor of Mary.

The traditional symbolism of the Advent wreath reminds the faithful of the Old Testament, when humanity was “sitting in the darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 2:79); when the prophets, illumined by God, announced the Redeemer; and when the hearts of men glowed with the desire for the Messiah. The wreath — an ancient symbol of victory and glory — symbolizes the “fulfillment of time” in the coming of Christ and the glory of His birth.

In some sections of Europe it is customary for persons with the name of John or Joan to have the first right to light the candles on the Advent wreath and Christmas tree, because John the Evangelist starts his Gospel by calling Christ the “Light of the World” and John the Baptist was the first one to see the light of divinity shining about the Lord at His baptism in the Jordan.

 Fr. Francis X. Weiser, SJ, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs
Our children like taking part in this daily devotion.  We try to let the little ones play a larger roll in preparation since this is a devotion that draws in all of the senses.  Children are assigned jobs; prepare wreath for lighting before dinner, handout prayers, light candles, and blowing out candles.  It is our goal to make this devotions and traditions their heart so that the liturgical life become innate in their entire being.
We have used a printable prayer booklet over the years but our copies have seen better days so I recreated the printable.  You’re invited to print and share for your personal use.

May the Good Lord stir us up so that these beautiful symbols and practices prepare our homes for His coming.

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