O King of the Nations, O Rex Gentium:
A meditation on the sixth of the Great O Antiphons of Advent:
O King of the Nations!
Long desired one we call to you!
Come from
your Royal Throne
and reign over us!
You who are the beginning
and the end of all;
the first principle
and the fount of all that is!
Come, we pray,
and restore the
divine order of this cosmos,
long thrown into chaos
by the discordant note
of our sin.
O King of the Nations!
Of old known by so many names
and in so many places sought!
Desired in the hearts
of all peoples, of all times
and templed in the souls
of all those ancient elders,
men and women of
justice,
peace,
and truth.
Tear down, then
the veils of separation
and reveal your holy name
to all,
as once you did to Moses,
that from the many nations
there may be formed
one peaceful people,
one flock,
beneath the loving gaze of
the Good Shepherd.
O King of the Nations!
Come and be our cornerstone!
Take our lost
and tumbling efforts
and re-found, re-form,
our crumbling clay
in your divine matrix
that humbled,
we may stand tall again
and find our place
within your temple
as living stones
once more!
O King of the Nations!
Hear our sacred invocation
as we sing the royal hymn of the Lady,
she who is your Queen and Mother both!
Let us follow her
in magnifying your power
in its paradox of grace!
For you,
O Conquering Messiah,
in your stabled birth
will teach us the true path
of kingship,
and bestow upon our nature
a royal dignity
never to be taken away!
So then,
may we become, again,
as once we were,
the highest gift
and twice blessed
in our being
by following your
descending
path to the lowest point
of emptiness
and there,
between the
breathing of the beasts
and the beating of a Mother’s heart,
beneath the star-stilled sky,
and
only there,
come at last
to hear the
Angels
exult
in true royalty
revealed
as Love
laying
upon
straw.
“O King of the Nations and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save the human race,
which you fashioned from clay.”
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