Friday 18 December 2020

O Adonai! In the Fire of the Burning Bush

 Tonight we meditate on the second of the Advent O Antiphons: O Adonai! O Lord and Deliverer!




O Adonai!

We cry to you across the endless ages!
We call you by the name for the Name,
that only the One beyond all names may bear, O Hashem!
We seek from you our own exodus 
from the cold and hard world 
we have built within ourselves,
and hurt so many others by.

O Adonai!

We yearn for your deliverance! 
Free us from the slavery to that false self 
that is but a shadow of our souls
Let us put off the sandals that insulate us 
from the deep throbbing heart of Mother Earth 
and step into your Holy Presence 
which is everywhere,
and there,
bow down before 
the wonder of it all.

O Adonai!

Send to us the Angel of the Burning Bush!
May he call out to us, 
so lost in our own thoughts 
and worries 
and dreams,
that we may 
at last 
remember 
the holiness of the ground 
we stand on in every place 
and at every time
for our where and when
rests always in
your divine 
Now.

O Adonai!

Draw us to yourself, O Holy One!
Lead us on that pilgrim path
from the depths of our selfishness 
to the heights of the mountain of compassion
and emptiness.
Bid us enter into the cloud, 
that dissembles thought 
and pierces the proud heart 
so to open the soul to the 
truest of loves. 

O Adonai!

Let us hear the thunder in the void!
There at the summit and centre of our souls 
inscribe your new Law of Love 
upon the tablets of our hearts
in letters of divine fire!

O Adonai!

At hour of sunset 
and star rise we call to you!
Hear the chant of your Church,
echoing the long and faithful love
of Abraham, and Isaac and their storied
generations.
Listen to these ancient invocations!
Look not on us,
nor on our readiness,
Look instead on she who is,
the Lady of Israel, 
the Daughter of Zion,
the Queen of Heaven!
She who is 
our burning bush, 
always aflame
but ever unconsumed,
who holds 
within her sacred womb 
the mystery 
of the Name made flesh!
Hear us sing her new song of deliverance
Hear the mystery magnified in woman 
who in that holiest of births
brings about
our deliverer,
and invites
our exodus
home.

O Adonai!

"Magnificat anima mea Dominum!" 
We cry with her,
and in her holy 
burning words 
we hear the song of her people, 
our ancestors of spirit, echoed anew

"Ashira L’Adonai ki ga’oh ga’ah!"

And so we sing 
with all the generations 
this Advent night!

"O Adonai,
and leader of the House of Israel,
who appeared to Moses 
in the fire of the burning bush
and gave him the law on Sinai:
Come and redeem us 
with an outstretched arm!"

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