Seventh Antiphon: O Emmanuel (December 23rd)
The O Emmanuel is the seventh Antiphon of the O Antiphons, prayed on December 23rd.
The meditation portion is not part of the O Antiphons, but is found in Dom Guerenger’s The Liturgical here. It is simply included here for your spiritual enrichment.
Seventh Antiphon: O Emmanuel
O Emmanuel, Rex et Legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et salvator earum; veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Deus noster.
Translation: O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expectation and Savior of the nations! Come and save us, O Lord our God!
Pray the O Antiphon & the Magnificat
The Magnificat
| Antiphon: O Emmanuel, Rex et Legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et salvator earum; veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Deus noster. Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum. Et exultávit spíritus meus: in Deo salutári meo. Quia respéxit humilitátem ancíllae suae: Ecce enim ex hoc beátam me dicent omnes generatiónes. Quia fécit mihi mágna qui pótens est: et sánctum nómen eius. Et misericórdia eius in progénies et progénies timéntibus eum. Fécit poténtiam in bráchio suo: dispérsit supérbos mente cordis sui. Depósuit poténtes de sede: et exaltávit húmiles. Esuriéntes implévit bonis: et dívites dimísit inánes. Suscépit Ísrael púerum suum: recordátus misericórdiae suae. Sicut locútus est ad patres nostros: Ábraham, et sémini eius in saecula. Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto, Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculórum. Amen. Repeat Antiphon | Antiphon: O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expectation and Savior of the nations! Come and save us, O Lord our God! My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Because He hath regarded the humility of His slave: For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because He that is mighty hath done great things to me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him. He hath shewed might in His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy: As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever. Glory be the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forever and ever, Amen. Repeat Antiphon |
Meditation
O Emmanuel! King of peace! Thou enters today the city of Thy predilection, the city in which Thou hast placed Thy temple—Jerusalem. A few years hence the same city will give Thee Thy cross and Thy sepulchre. Moreso, the day will come on which Thou wilt set up Thy judgement-seat within sight of her walls. But today Thou enters the city of David and Solomon unnoticed and unknown. It lies on Thy road to Bethlehem. Thy blessed Mother and Joseph her spouse would not lose the opportunity of visiting the temple, there to offer to the Lord their prayers and adoration. They enter; and then, for the first time, is accomplished the prophecy of Haggai, that great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first; for this second temple has now standing within it an Ark of the Covenant more precious than was that which Moses built. For within this ark, which is Mary, is contained the God whose presence makes her the holiest of sanctuaries. The Lawgiver Himself is in this blessed ark, and not merely, as in that of old, the tablet of stone on which the Law was given.
The visit paid, our living ark descends the steps of the temple, and sets out once more for Bethlehem, where other prophecies are to be fulfilled. We adore Thee, O Emmanuel, in this Thy journey, and we reverence the fidelity wherewith Thou fulfills all that the prophets have written of Thee; for Thou would give to Thy people the certainty of Thy being the Messiah, by showing them that all the marks, whereby He was to be known, are to be found in Thee. And now, the hour is near. All is ready for Thy birth. Come then, and save us. Come that Thou may not only be called our Emmanuel, but our Jesus, that is, He that saves us.
From The Liturgical Year, by Dom Guerenger.
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