Ember Friday in the third week of Advent

        

              Happy are they who trust in the Lord! 

                                     Psalm 40:4

There are two verses this morning. The first is from Morning Prayer; the second is the first O Antiphon! O Antiphons are the countdown to Christmas - they mean that Christmas is coming whether the goose is getting fat or not...  (If you know about antiphons and O Antiphons, don’t bother reading this. But if you don’t:)

Antiphons are sentences that introduce the psalm or Daily Office canticle on a special feast day, occasion or season. It changes the em-pha-sis as my old music teacher, choir director, organist and friend Mr Ellfeldt - “Mr E” to us kids! - used to say. Antiphons are a real blessing to those who say the psalms and canticles on a repeated basis year after year. adding variety and focus. 

The O Antiphons are antiphons on the Song of Mary, Magnificat, (BCP Pg 119) the invariable canticle at Evening Prayer. They begin today, December 17, and end on December 23rd, the night before Christmas Eve, The are called “O Antiphons” simply because they all begin with O..... You know them without knowing it if you know the Advent hymn “O Come, O come, Emmanuel.” (Now it’ll be singing itself in our heads for hours, huh?...  “Re-joice, re-joice,E-ma-a-an-uel  shall come to thee O I-i-is-rael.”)  In the current Episcopal Hymnal, it is Hymn # 56 and it has the dates they are each used and a brief explanation at the bottom of the page.)  If you don't see an O Antiphon in the morning from now until the 23rd, it'll be there later!) 

And so, here is the first O Antiphon - long awaited by some of us! -  of 2010,  scroll down  :