Meditation poem for the Fourth O Antiphon: O Key of David!

Tonight we meditate on the fourth of the Great O Antiphons of Advent:

O Clavis David!

O Key of David!

Opener of the way between the worlds

Come and open our tight locked hearts!

O you who make of your very self 

both the door and the key

make straight our path to you this night

and from the long winding of the ages

order us aright and 

set our feet upon the way of peace 

who long since left the path, 

and stumble blind in darkness 

of our own making!

O Key of David!

You who unlock the ancient temple treasury of Israel

come and liberate its golden light 

to illumine the darkness of the whole world!

Open the minds 

of all who seek truth and beauty 

to find their source and summit

in your mangered birth. 

Temper our being, 

O Sceptered smith 

of the heavens

by the hammer 

of your divinity 

until we are fit vessels for your sacred meal, 

tabernacles of your spirit, 

alloys rendered pure again 

and fit for the King’s own

birthday feast.

O Key of David!

Open the long barred doors of Heaven as you descend! 

Claim again the authority of divinity over humanity, 

and humanity in divinity over creation. 

Release the locks of longing 

holding the doors of limbo shut 

and quicken again the hearts 

of patriarchs and prophets, 

of the ancient fathers and mothers 

of all times and places 

who have kept faith with the promise 

of a freedom scarce imagined, 

yet desired of all the ages.

O Key of David!

Unlock in us the song of heaven

that sin strangled into silence 

so long ago!

Let ours be the song 

of the Woman

whose faith drew you down 

upon the earth

she, the thrice holy one, 

in whom the gift of grace

shone so bright 

that even the shadow of 

death 

was put to flight,

when you who are 

life unbounded 

and eternal,

key and door both,

dwelt sealed in her

three seasons long,

so as to unlock for all

and forever

the way to

the eternal 

Spring.

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

you open and no one can shut;

you shut and no one can open:

Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death!"