"O" Antiphons

The "O" antiphons are ancient prayers that, traditionally have been chanted or sung and date back as early as the 7th century. They cover a distinct period of Advent preparation known as the Octave before Christmas, December 17-23. The prayers are significant because they each highlight a title for the Messiah and refer to Isaiah's prophecy of the coming Messiah.

Carl Stam (from Worship Quote of the Day) points out that the anonymous poet (or poets) who put the original Latin texts together also included an interesting hidden message in the form of an acrostic. If you take the first letter that follows the "O" in each verse and turn it around you'll find...

"ERO CRAS," a two-word Latin sentence which means, "I will be tomorrow."

The various prophetic names (O Key of David, O Radiant Dawn) were ordered in a way that also pointed to the coming of Christ. Very cool.

Over the next 7 days, I will be posting the "O" antiphons along with the correlating passages from Isaiah so that we may continue to "prepare a place" for Christ, our Emmanuel this Advent season. I will also be posting a painting by various artists (inspired by another Advent devotional) that reflect some of the themes of the prayers.