{"id":65901,"date":"2024-12-04T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=65901"},"modified":"2024-12-03T09:31:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T15:31:48","slug":"o-come-o-come-emmanuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/04\/o-come-o-come-emmanuel\/","title":{"rendered":"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post continues the\u00a0<\/em>Obsculta\u00a0Preaching Series, sponsored by the\u00a0<\/em>Obsculta\u00a0Preaching Initiative at Saint John\u2019s School of Theology and Seminary. In these posts, our authors engage a variety of ways in which scripture, preaching, and liturgical worship interact with the life of the faithful.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember when I first heard the song, \u201cO Come, O Come Emmanuel.\u201d\u00a0 I was in 2nd<\/sup> grade at Saint Ambrose School in Rochester, NY.\u00a0 As a\u00a0youngster coming to terms with the fascinating yet confusing way the adult world was organized, I did not know what to think of it.\u00a0 \u201cO Come, O Come Emmanuel\u201d did not have the frolicking levity of \u201cJingle Bells\u201d or the sweet piety of \u201cSilent Night,\u201d which were the only other songs I associated with Christmas back then.\u00a0 Nonetheless, it certainly fell into the \u201creligious\u201d category, because we were told \u201cEmmanuel\u201d is another name for Jesus, and both the singer and we were waiting for Christmas to come.\u00a0 Good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never gave the piece much thought after that until I was a freshman in college, when I heard Joan Baez\u2019s recording of it, which led to a conversation with a liturgist who explained that the Advent carol rested on the whole tradition of the O Antiphons<\/em>.  I needed to know more, and pursuing this line brought me to the Magnificat in Luke\u2019s Gospel.  Since I had just completed my first course in Sacred Scripture, an experience that opened to me a whole new world, I was immediately drawn to this Advent hymn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one might expect, O Come O Come Emmanuel<\/em> has its roots in Latin.  Scholars have traced it to a sixth-century prayer book entitled, appropriately enough, O Antiphons, <\/em>in which the vocative particle \u201cO\u201d is followed by an attribute of Jesus.  It seems that a schola of monks, nuns, or other religious, sang a particular antiphon to introduce the Magnificat at Vespers the week before Christmas.  To do so, they drew on various biblical passages from the biblical prophets and Wisdom literature, and they addressed them as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n