I wanted to share an interesting tidbit that I learned this weekend about my favorite advent hymn "O Come O ComeEmmanuel." [If you're not familiar with the hymn, I'm pasting the lyrics at the end of this post.] Apparently, the hymn itself is a 19th century translation of a 12th century Latin hymn. But the roots of the song actually go back much earlier, to the sixth century when many churches observed the last week before Christmas by singing a series of seven antiphons (short passages based on Scripture sung in a call-and-response fashion). The seven antiphons sung that week were called the "O Antiphons" as they all begin with "O" at the beginning of the verse, emphasizing the longing of advent for the coming of Christ. Those antiphons were later made into the modern hymn. If you check it out, you see that each of the seven verses begins with one of the O Antiphons. How cool is that? Sixth century tradition still observed today--some things you really can't improve upon.
Incidentally, all of this knowledge is from our music director, Ken Myers' bulletin note on the subject. (And you thought church bulletins were boring!)
While we're on the subject of Ken Myers' wisdom about music, I wanted to share a statement of his from the annual meeting that struck me as profound. When talking about the music ministry at All Saints, Ken said that worshiping God with music is one of the things that we know we're going to do for eternity, and so it's important to learn about and practice now. Huh.
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times did'st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
