O Key of David - Dec 20

O Clavis David (O Key of David)

Latin:

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel;

qui aperis, et nemo claudit;

claudis, et nemo aperit:

veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,

sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

English:

O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;

who open and no one shuts;

you shut and no one opens:

Come and lead the chained from the house of bondage,

him sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.

A good first step to understanding what you read and, therefore, a good beginning for reading scripture is to slow yourself down when considering them to make yourself think.  Everyone can, for example, gain a better understanding of scripture by reading it aloud instead of reading it quietly.  You can write out the passage that you are thinking about, diagram the sentences, identify the parts of speech.  Trying to read scripture in the original languages can get me thoroughly to study a passage.  I remember once carefully translating a psalms from Latin to English.  I discovered that I had the thing memorized when the process was done.

Of all these different methods for making a good beginning the best way to approach scripture, should one have the ability, is to try to resolve anything that strikes as contrary to faith. 

It should be clear that in this 'O Antiphon' Christ is the Key of David.  The Protestants may say that this ancient 'O Antiphon'  supports the idea that Christ is our only help, for only he can shut and only he can open.  However, if we look at the words of our Lord from Isaiah, which the first part of this antiphon is based on, we see that another person is involved: "I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open." He who opens and shut does not necessarily refer to the Key of David.  Who then carries the burden of this Key on his shoulder?  There is a striking resemblance between this passage of Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew.  Our Lord says to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  It seems that Peter is the one who opens and shuts.  The loosing power of Peter allows the church to forgive sins on God's behalf.

To the protestants we answer that Christ is the only Key that shuts and open certain doors but he chooses to give that Key to his minsters who then are the only ones with the power to open and close those doors.

Now, this power is like the opening of locks which secure chains and prison doors. We pray that Christ through his ministers in the Church, will come and lead those chained by sin out from the state of perdition, and lead out he who sits -- that is, he who is resigned to his poor condition -- in darkness -- that is his mind darkened by sin -- and in the shadow of death -- that is guilt which could lead to eternal punishment.

Reminded that Christ is the only way out of all hopelessness, we are encouraged to pray that he deliver us.

 So now with "O Clavis', we have the letters 'C R A S'. You will notice that I have been giving the letters in reverse order.  I am giving you a clue.  Words are more easily guessed when you get the first letters.  These letters are being given in reverse order so you cannot know what is being said until all the letters are given.  But I will tell you all this: you now have a Latin word!

Written by Fr. O, Dayton, OH

Making Room for Jesus in our Hearts and Home

Children can prepare their hearts for the baby Jesus by doing little acts of love for him.  To encourage this practice and help them remember, it is helpful to have something concrete for them to see and do.  I find that preparing the manger bed with straw is a lovely practice that my kids enjoy.  We leave straw close by, so the kids can ad a piece when they remember to do an act of love for Jesus.  This can be as simple as a small prayer.  "Jesus prepare my heart so I can welcome you on Christmas Day." 

O Root of Jesse

Thanks to Peter Os kids for the drawings

Vespers of the 19th of December
 
Latin:

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,

super quem continebunt reges os suum,

quem Gentes deprecabuntur:

veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

English:

O Root of Jesse, who stand for an ensign of the people;

before whom kings will shut their mouths,

whom the nations shall beseech:

Come to deliver us, now do not tarry.

  

Someone asked if I could post at the beginning of the day.  In fact, I want you to read this about the time of Vespers.  My reason for this is actually tied in with the code.   I also promised to explain why I said "sort of today" in my first post.  Recently the practice has been introduced of having anticipation masses of Sunday on Saturday night.  (It is not right to call them Vigil Masses.)  In point of fact, this may be the more appropriate time to have a Sunday Mass then Sunday night or the evening of a holy day.  Think of it: you go to mass on Sunday night and your Sunday is over.  Is it not better to have been to Mass even the night before so that your Sunday or holy day is sanctified?  Not long before 1962 the liturgical day started with Vespers.  So on any feast of a saint you would celebrate Vespers for that saint the day before, and then in the evening at the end of his feast day, you would say the Vespers of the saint of the next calendar day.  Only on great feasts and Sundays would you say a Second Vespers in the evening at the end of the feast day.  

Sundays and major feasts (1st Class or Solemnities) still have a Vespers the day before.  The 'O Antiphons' are also preserved on the day before, perhaps for no other reason than that Christmas has a first Vespers on the 24th.  Remember: the 'O Antiphons' go from the evening of the 17th to the Evening of the 23^rd, not the 24th.  So the "O Antiphon" should be something you think about, dream about, and then meditate on, till the next Vespers (and the new antiphon.)

Now to the 'O Antiphon' for today.  'O Radix Jesse'  Here we have the first and the third phrase from Isaiah 11:10.  The words are almost identical except that the third person verb 'stands' now is in the second person 'stand', because we are saying 'O'. We are not saying, "he who standS", but "O (Thou) who stand_."

Concerning the root of Jesse: there is another expression, shoot from the root of Jesse (Virga de radice Jesse), which obviously refers to the other end of the Jesse Tree.  Now the shoot of Jesse refers to our Lady or our Lord, and this is where you would think to put our Lord on the tree, as a branch that grows out of the tree.  We should not be dumbfounded at scripture saying that Our Lord is the root of Jesse as the Pharisees were dumbfound when Jesus pointed out that the Messiah is the Lord of David.  Root of Jesse, Lord of David. For we know that our Lord is God and that He caused the tree of Jesse to be.  Yet He is also the son of David, and a shoot of Jesse.

Perhaps referring to our Lord as an ensign points to His incarnation.  A visible reality that points to an invisible reality is a sign, and this ensign particularly refers to our Lord on the cross because the nations will beseech him.  So the action of prayer should be before the cross, at least in intention, since His crucifixion is the source of the efficacy of our prayer.  Meanwhile, the kings are speechless because they do not believe in the Incarnation or the Cross and are left somehow powerless to resist it.  We, however, under the kings of this world, under the present reign of sin, see our chances lie in the power of the Root of Jesse.  Eager to be free from sin we cry,  "Come to deliver us, now do not tarry."

So there you have it.  The title for Christ today is 'Radix Jesse' which gives us an “R” and adding that to the code we get: R A S.

Written by Fr O., Dayton, OH

O' Adonai - Dec 18

O Adonai (O Lord)

Vespers Dec. 18th.

Now here is the second 'O Antiphon':

Latin:

O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,

qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,

et ei in Sina legem dedisti:

veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

English:

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,

who to Moses in the fire of the burning bush Thou appeared

and to him on Sinai the law Thou gave :

Come to redeem us with an arm outstretched .

O Adonai... If you have translated the title of this blog, 'Dominus Prope', you know the name for 'lord' in latin is 'dominus'.  'Adonai' is the Hebrew word for 'lord'.  So why then do we not have "O Dominus..." in the Latin?  'Dominus' is one of the most common words in the Old Testament, but it is actually a replacement word for the name of God, 'Yahweh'.  So every time you see 'Dominus' in the Old Testament, it is because 'Yahweh' is being replaced.  Ever wonder why you have never seen the name of God, which was given to Moses? Now you know.  So now 'Adonai' just means 'Lord', or more precisely, 'my Lord'.  The Hebrew was preserved in Latin to differentiate it from the name of God.

Yahweh is then conspicuously absent here. For the very occasion where God gave His name is mentioned in this 'O Antiphon'.  Perhaps we are to recall it anyway, like when we identify a person by their shadow.  

Reflecting on Christ's leadership we remember that like Moses he instigates our salvation by both calling and directing us by His law.  We then need His further help, redemption, because we transgress the law of our God who we know by name.

The expression 'with an outstretched hand' coupled with the 'Adonai' uniquely identifies one of only two times the 'Adonai' is used in the Vulgate, Ex. 6:3 "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: I am the Lord, That appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; and my name ADONAI I did not shew them."  6:6 "Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm."  God himself desired to free us in an infinitely more perfect way then the freeing of the Israelites from slavery.   So when he spoke these words to Moses, he intended our redemption through Christ; the freeing of Israel was a colossal metaphor for an even greater event.  Seeing this inner purpose of God's statement long ago and realizing the immanence of Christ's coming, we are inspired to ask with great vehemence for redemption.

So now we have an 'A' from 'O Adonai', but the first Antiphon began 'O Sapientia'.  So we now have A S.

Written by Fr O., Dayton, OH

O Sapientia (O Wisdom)

Do you want to live more the Advent season and escape consumerism?

Vespers of the 17th of December.

Advent is an extremely rich season.

The first of the great and very ancient "O antiphons" are sung today -- well sort of today: the traditions of the church are being obscured, but I will explain later.

The "O antiphons" refer to the 7 Antiphons used for each of the 7 Magnificats at Vespers (Evening pray) from  December 17th to December 23.  (I might be giving too much away to tell you why the Magnificat antiphon of the 24th is not included. ) The O Antiphons are part of the season of Advent.  A kind of Holy week of Advent.  The already beautiful and intricate offices of Advent become very unique for each day of Advent Holy Week.  At least in the extraordinary form, four new antiphons are introduced for the 4 psalms of Lauds and the 4 minor hours, a fifth antiphon is used for the canticle of Lauds.

Back to Vespers and the "O Antiphon."  Each Antiphon begins with the word "O" -- fortunately Latin and English share this word and it has the same meaning.  The rest of the antiphon is different for each day.  But their you have it that is why they are called the "O Antiphons." It should be clear then that these Antiphons will be calling on someone each day. "O __________,  do something."

The next word of the antiphon is a name of Christ so we have "O Sapientia" (O Wisdom) on the first day. But one of the interesting things is the first letter of this second word.  The first letter today will then be "S" from Sapientia. This is part of code which we will break on the evening of the 23rd.

Now here is the whole antiphon for Vespers of the 17th of Dec.:
Latin:

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,

attingens a fine usque ad finem,

fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:

veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

Translating to English is pretty easy as Latin text go:

O Wisdom,  which from the mouth of the Most High proceeds,

reaching from one end unto the other,

mightily and sweetly disposing all things:

Come to teach us the way of prudence.

Each day a new antiphon is revealed and at the end I will reveal the code.

Written by Fr O., Dayton, OH

Free Downloadable Creches....Awesome!

Take a look at these beautiful down loadable Christmas Creches on the Paper Model Kiosk site.   Many are free, some cost a small fee.  All are beautiful and so easy to make or give!

 Clube Amigos do Presépio founder Celso Battistini C. Rosa of Brazil shares a vintage crèche from his collection. 

"A crèche," Celso says, "doesn't just continue an old tradition — it reveals the true meaning of Christmas. Because it reminds us that the Babe was born for us all; because it allows us to recognize that God invited everyone — rich and poor, magi and shepherds — to the manger.

"When I was a child, I simply couldn't wait to put up the

Christmas nativity in our house. I kept asking my Mom if I could start, and she would say, 'We have to clean the house first; that will take about a month.'

"Do you know how long a month is for a child? I didn't understand why
we had to wait for so long to start decorating. Nowadays, I smile remembering Christmases past, and I tell my children, 'We'll start putting up our creches even though the house may not be clean!'

"And I try to instill in my children not just an appreciation of nativities as art—but make them aware of their message…"

Visit them on the web at http://www.papermodelkiosk.com/shop/index.php