Veni, Veni Emmanuel

“...In their magnificent yet simple beauty the Great O’s are the quintessence of the Advent liturgy. Their language bears the weight of God’s eternity and mercy. They are a poignant cry of the soul of the people of Advent; they address God by the most compelling and tender of divine names, and they always end with an intense COME, VENI. All have the same structure, the O of apostrophe, and imperative of appeal. And while the imperatives of the season are often joyous and clamorous, these last appeals to God seem to read as if the iron of our misery is in our very blood. For though even in other parts of the liturgy of the last week our optimism continues and our hope is bright, in the solemn ceremonial of the evening Magnificat we are soberly acknowledging that our dire wretchedness can be remedied only by omnipotent mercifulness.
Only one of the Great O’s is read each day of our approach to Christmas. The effect of this is noticeable, for we definitely feel a growing tensity as each evening passes. We seem to be making a forward step and to be covering infinite distances from eternity to Bethlehem. There is a climatic order in these antiphons. In the first, O Sapientia, we take a backward flight into the recesses of eternity to address Wisdom, the Word of God. In the second, O Adonai, we have leaped from eternity to the time of Moses and the Law of Moses (about 1400 B.C.). In the third, O Radix Jesse, we have come to the time when God was preparing the line of David (about 1100 B.C.). In the fourth, O Clavis David, we have come to the year 1000. In the fifth, O Oriens we see that the line of David is elevated so that the peoples may look on a rising star in the east, and hence in the sixth, O Rex Gentium, we know that He is king of all the world of man. This brings us to the evening before the vigil, and before coming to the town limits of Bethlehem, we salute Him with the last Great O, O Emmanuel, God-with-us. We have traveled a long distance and have waited long, but at Bethlehem we are to find the Little One who is Emmanuel, God of God and Light of Light, and yet God with us.” (He Comethby William J. McGarry, S.J.)

Ditto.

Today marks the beginning of my favorite time in the Advent season: the O Antiphons.  I see the O Antiphons as a kind of spiritual 'hunkering down' if you will. To help make this idea more tangible to the kids, last year we made an O Antiphon house (idea from Shower of Roses) and, voila, it is now a bona fide tradition here in the Meloche household.   I also printed up the Great "O" Antiphon Prayer Companion by Jennifer Gregory Miller and plan on using these wonderful coloring pages for the kids.

Here it is (not exactly finished though):

In addition to prayers, hymns and coloring pages for each Antiphon, I plan on doing something special for each day (again, thank you Shower of Roses). Here is the breakdown:

O SAPIENTA - O WISDOM

We have this game called Divinity, it is a trivia game based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It is a really fun game and one everyone can play because there are three levels of trivia questions: easy, moderate and difficult.  The kids and I enjoy it...of course, I would enjoy it even MORE if I didn't play it with someone who has his PhD in Theology. Nevertheless, we will sit down as a family and the rest of us will grow in 'wisdom'.

O ADONAI - O LORD AND RULER

I had a hard time with this one.  I wanted to make 'house-shaped' pancakes for supper to emphasize the 'Ruler of the house of Israel' but that's just more work for me. Silly me.   Then I remembered we have this house Lego set that I hid on the boys that would be perfect. Done.

O RADIX JESSE - O ROOT OF JESSE

This is the easiest one: Root Beer Floats.  THOSE I will happily make. The only problem I ran into was in finding all-natural preservative-free root beer here in the middle of Oklahoma...What? What's so funny about that? 

O CLAVIS DAVID - O KEY OF DAVID

Have you heard of Jim Weiss, the well-known storyteller? Anyway, I was able to get one of his audio recordings called Tales from the Old Testament.  So we will listen to two stories: David and Goliath and David's Dance.  I wanted to buy Sour Keys candy too, remember those? Maybe they're just a Canadian thing because I couldn't find those either. 

O ORIENS - O RISING DAWN

We will 'light' a candle and read the book "Lucia Saint of Light" by Katherine Bolger Hyde.

O REX GENTIUM - O KING OF THE NATION

I bought some crowns from the dollar store. The kids should have fun with them. Richard can juggle so he can play the court jester.

O EMMANUEL

And for la-piece-de-resistance, I found this lovely ornament at the dollar store and when I first looked at it I immediately thought of the monstrance.  Right? So it will serve as a beautiful reminder of Jesus in the Eucharist on our Christmas tree. 

(Note to self: get a Christmas tree).

Have a wonderful time "acknowledging that our dire wretchedness can be remedied only by omnipotent mercifulness". Love that.