After December 17, the focus of the Advent liturgy changes and we direct our thoughts towards the imminent birth of Jesus. One of the most beautiful ways in which this change of mood and growing sense of expectancy can be perceived and celebrated is with the so-called “O” antiphons.
In these antiphons the Church calls out directly to the Messiah with mystic titles drawn from the Old Testament: “O Root of Jesse, O Wisdom, O Dayspring … come!” They are a beautiful expression of the longing of the world for its Saviour. They were originally sung as the antiphon at Vespers, as darkness falls, for it was and will always be as the world is descending into darkness that Christ will come to save. They are already familiar from being amalgamated into that great Advent hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, which ought, therefore, not to be sung until now.
