The Great O's: Number One

 Okay, I'm going to try to take a break from the crazy politics.  One week from today is Christmas Eve.  In the Medieval Church, the evening service, called Vespers, was held nightly.  For the week before Christmas there were special antiphons written for each of these 7 days leading up to the celebration of Christ's birth.

Antiphons, short verses, often from the Bible and set to music, are still used in many traditional church liturgies.  In the Medieval Church, they were all in Latin.  With the Protestant Reformation, churches began shifting to the native languages of their people, whether German, English, etc.

These "Great O's" are so named because each starts with the word  "O".  In the early 1400s a haunting tune was in use with them in France, which has been carried on today.  Our English text translation was done by John Mason Neale in the 1800s, adding the refrain, "Rejoice, rejoice...".   The result is one of my favorite Christmas songs, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".

For December 17, here is the antiphon:

 O Wisdom proceeding from the mouth of the Most High,
pervading and permeating all creation,

mightily ordering all things:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

And here is the verse of the hymn:

O Come, Thou Wisdom from on high, who orders all things mightily;

To us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.