O Emmanuel: A meditation on the seventh of the Great O Antiphons of Advent:
O Emmanuel!
You who are God with us,
Come and deliver your people!
All holy one
who dwells higher
than the Cherubim,
adored by the living fire of the
Seraphim in love
so exultant it enflames all
it touches,
you who hide behind
the cloud and thunder of Sinai,
lest we would die
in awe,
descend now
and reveal at last
your face to us
our Saviour!
O Emmanuel!
Name by which
we would never
have named you,
so awesome is your mystery;
and yet, this name you choose
and place upon your
prophet who speaks it as sign
through lips of flame.
Descending into our nature
so to raise it on high;
our God above,
beyond,
before
you are,
yet now revealed as
with us
in our every moment,
as in your incarnation
eternity weds time
and heals the long broken
human heart
consecrating the cosmic
temple anew.
O Emmanuel!
Love incarnate
and light from light!
You fill all things,
and all things
have their being in you,
yet you choose us
for your family
and come to dwell in us
through the mystery
of a mother’s love!
For nine moons
at play in that sacred pool,
ever unrippled
and undisturbed,
you hallow
the waters of the womb
again
and in its sacred darkness
dance,
making of the one who builds you
from her own blood
and feeds you on her own milk
the first tabernacle from
which all of us
will feed!
O Emmanuel!
Hear us on this seventh
and most sacred night,
as we complete
the circle of
our sacred invocations,
closing at last the wreath
of evergreen time,
and gather once again
at star-rise to call you
from the heavens
and down the winding roads
of our long hoping
to be born in us again!
O hear our song
sung from the heart
of humbled humanity
that we, who have in you
our very God with us,
may learn the wisdom from
your prophet promised
and thrice holy mother,
to bow our heads
and enter Bethlehem’s barn
and there be with the One
who in love’s divine mystery
is always and ever
with us.
“O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God!”
No comments:
Post a Comment