Friday, December 17, 2010

The "O" Antiphons and Godly Backward Masking

Tonight is traditionally the first night to begin the seven “O” Antiphons, which mark the height of Advent leading up to Christmas Eve. An excellent summary of them with mp3s and the scriptures behind them may be found at fisheaters:

The seven "O Antiphons" (also called the "Greater Antiphons" or "Major Antiphons") are prayers that come from the Breviary's Vespers during the Octave before Christmas Eve, a time which is called the "Golden Nights."

Each Antiphon begins with "O" and addresses Jesus with a unique title which comes from the prophecies of Isaias and Micheas (Micah), and whose initials, when read backwards, form an acrostic for the Latin "Ero Cras" which means "Tomorrow I come." Those titles for Christ are:
Sapientia
Adonai
Radix Jesse
Clavis David
Oriens
Rex Gentium
Emmanuel


It never occurred to me that there might be such a thing as godly backward masking, but there you go.

I intend to include these in my late Advent devotions, beginning tonight – a first for me.

1 comment:

TLF+ said...

I honestly didn't know about "Tomorrow I Come" in the backwards acrostic. Because of your sharing this, I am making it a point to offer the O Antiphon each night.