Luke 1: 46 – 55
O King of the nations, you alone can fulfil their desire; cornerstone, you make opposing nations one. Come and save the creature you fashioned from clay.
Each night from December 16th the Sisters sing a beautifully haunting plainsong chant using one of
the O Antiphons before and after the Song of Mary, the Magnificat. An antiphon is a short phrase or sentence sung before and after a psalm or canticle. The antiphon is often taken from within the text it bookends or it may reflect the church season. If you are familiar with the hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, then you are familiar with these O Antiphons, in which we recite many of the titles of Jesus, the long expected One. On successive nights we sing; O Wisdom; O Lord; O Branch of Jesse; O King of David; O Morning Star; O King of the nations; and finally, O Emmanuel. On this night, December 21, we use the antiphon which starts, O King of the nations. It tugs at our hearts as we sing because Jesus is the one alone who can fulfil our desires.
What desire do we have except to be united with him in love as one, and to have Jesus as our very cornerstone? In these last few days as we come to the close of Advent our hearts cry out with our eager longing for the one who came to us in love at Christmas, our Emmanuel, our Saviour.
Come, O King of the nations, come and save the creature you fashioned from clay.
- Sr. Elizabeth Ann Eckhert, SSJD
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