O Adonai

O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave im the holy law on Sianai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.

O Antiphons

"O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet gentle care.  Come and show your people the way to salvation." 

The “Seven Marian Antiphons” are a setting of the “O Antiphons” of the Roman Catholic liturgy which are short verses sung before the Magnificat for Evening Prayer of the seven days preceding the vigil of Christmas.  Called the “O Antiphons” because each begins with the interjection “O”, their opening words are: O Sapientia, O Adonai, O Radix Jesse, O Clavis David, O Oriens, O Rex Gentium, O Emmanuel.  Each is addressed to Christ under one of his Scriptural titles and each concludes with a petition to the coming Lord.  An interesting acrostic occurs when the first letter of each invocation is taken in reverse order: ERO CRAS.  The phrase spells out the response of Christ to the heartfelt prayer of his people:  “Tomorrow I will be there.”  In the ninth century, the antiphons were reworked into the familiar hymn: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come, O Come Emmanuel)

 Background information

The Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) is a collection of prayer services which take place at various times throughout the day.  The idea is the sanctification of all time.  Clerics in the Catholic Church make a promise to pray the hours at the time of their ordination. 

Prior to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council the Divine Office had a primarily monastic form.  The various hours of the day (e.g., Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, etc.) were solemnized by the chanting of psalms, the proclamation of Scripture, and the chanting of various Scriptural canticles.  Prayers for the needs of the Church and the world are included in some of the Hours.

In the Vatican II reforms, the Office was simplified for use by the diocesan clergy.  However, the structure was maintained: Invitatory, Hymn, Psalmody, Scripture, Responsory, Magnificat with its antiphon, Intercessions, The Lord’s Prayer and Concluding Prayer and Blessing.  Night Prayer also includes a concluding Marian Hymn (e.g., Salve Regina, Regina Coeli, Ave Maria).

The last several years have seen an increase in communal celebrations of the Liturgy of the Hours, especially Morning and Evening Prayer.  Many parishes offer Vespers to celebrate special occasions.  (In Winona, we celebrate Morning Prayer on the three days of the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) on which Masses other than those prescribed for the Triduum are forbidden).  Parish vespers often follow a more ceremonial form of the Office which is rooted in the Cathedral Vespers of ancient times.  This often includes an opening light ceremony (Lucenarium) and thanksgiving for the light and the use of incense and more formal vestments.

May they rest in peace

For those killed at Newtown, Connecticut.  The beautiful Lux aeterna by Nadia Boulanger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh6oPghFnt0

Gaudete Sunday

Gaudete in a time of sadness.  My homily for the Third Sunday of Advent.

On Friday, as I made my way to St. Cloud to take my mother Christmas shopping (don’t all you mothers wish you had a son like me?) I began to hear the reports of the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.  I realized rather quickly that my original homily, focused as it was on the call to rejoice would not be quite right in the aftermath of such violence and loss of innocent life. 

            And yet we have these beautiful readings which call us to rejoice – even when we may not feel like rejoicing.  Even when our feelings may be more in line with a short Latin poem that a friend of mine composed:  Nocte fletuum angelis./Mundi frangitur./Vocis voces in caelis/Clamant malum lucem extinguitur.  Translated into English it means: Night of weeping angels./The world is shattered./Resounding voices in heaven/Cry out: Evil has extinguished the light.  It easy, in the face of such horror to feel that evil is triumphant and that the light has been extinguished.  So what can we say?  How should we respond? And what is God saying to us today through our Scriptures?

            St. Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, the source of today’s second reading from prison.  One would not think this would be an occasion for rejoicing.  And yet, not only does Paul encourage us to rejoice, he wants us to rejoice in the Lord always, and then he says, “again I say, rejoice.”  Where did Paul, in the midst of his suffering and trial, get the urge to rejoice?  It comes in the next sentence:  The Lord is near.  For Paul, who was expecting the Lord’s return in short order, the fact that the Lord was near overcame the sufferings of the present and infused his heart with joy. 

            What about the prophesy of Zephaniah that contains our first reading – that exhilarating call to rejoicing that seems so full of hope and excitement and which is set so stunningly  by Handel in his “Messiah?”  Zephaniah’s times were not easy.  The kingdom to which his prophesy is addressed had fallen into complete moral and spiritual decay.  The king had entered into an alliance with the Assyrians which included acceptance of their gods.  So Zephaniah is faced with rulers who act like foreigners.  He could see the fraud, violence and complacency that accompanied the disintegration of the political leadership.   Added to the political turmoil was an increasing belief among the people that God was powerless to act.  That their situation in life had become permanent. 

            When we read the entirety of Zephaniah’s prophesy we encounter his catalogue of accusations against the rulers of his day.  And then he ends his prophesy with the bold call to rejoice and shout for joy.  Why?  Because the Lord is in their midst and he comes to bring them forgiveness and comfort.  In other words, the dire situation in which they live is not the end of the story – that God can and will act on behalf of the people.

            That is the message for us on this Gaudete Sunday (the Sunday of rejoicing) as we face yet another senseless act of violence.  That we are not alone, that the light is not extinguished, that our God is with us.  That is the constant theme of this Advent and Christmas season – that our God has come to us with salvation, forgiveness and strength.  That is the message of the Advent wreath whose candles we light one by one.  That is the message of the Scripture and song that we share during these weeks when not only do the nights seem long and cold but tragedy, once again, visits our land.

            In the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine, Archbishop Charles Chaput, who was then the Archbishop of Denver wrote to his people of his feelings and experience in the wake of that tragedy.  He writes:  “The impact of what happened this past week in Littleton, however, didn't fully strike home in my heart until the morning after the murders, when I visited a large prayer gathering of students from Columbine High School, and spent time with the families of two of the students who died. They taught me something.  The students who gathered to pray and comfort each other showed me again the importance of sharing not just our sorrow, but our hope. God created us to witness His love to each other, and we draw our life from the friendship, the mercy and the kindness we offer to others in pain. The young Columbine students I listened to, spoke individually -- one by one -- of the need to be strong, to keep alive hope in the future, and to turn away from violence. Despite all their confusion and all their hurt, they would not despair. I think I understand why. We're creatures of life. This is the way God made us: to assert life in the face of death.”

            In our Gospel, John the Baptist responds to the questions of those who came to him about how they should order their lives.  He gives each group some rather practical advice.  Archbishop Chaput did the same:  “We need to change. But societies only change when families change, and families only change when individuals change. Without a conversion to humility, non-violence and selflessness in our own hearts, all our talk about "ending the violence" may end as pious generalities. It is not enough to speak about reforming our society and community. We need to reform ourselves.”

            And so, what I learned from the Scriptures is that rejoicing is necessary to hope.  That in the darkness and the violence we need not a giddy, superficial joy but a deep down recognition that God has not abandoned us, that God, in fact, grieves with us – he too, lost a Son in an act of violence and hatred.  I learned that in the midst of darkness there is light – the light of the resilience of the human spirit, but even more the light of Christ whose presence among us we are preparing to celebrate.  I learned that when the evil seems to have extinguished the light that I need to rejoice even more.

Happy St. Juan de la Cruz Day

"In the evening of life we will be judged on love alone"

Santa Lucia

From Thomas Merton:

Lucy, whose day is on our darkest season,
(Althought your name is full of light,)
We walkers in the murk and rain of flesh and sense,
Lost in the midnight of our dead world's winter solstice
Look for the fogs to open on your friendly star.

We have long since cut down the summer of history;
Our cheerful towns have all gone out
    like fireflies in October.
The fields are flooded and the vine is bare:
How have our long days dwindled,
    now the world is frozen!

Locked in the cold jails of our stubborn will,
Oh hear the shovels growling in the gravel.
This is the way they'll make our beds for ever,
Ours, whose Decembers have put out the sun:
Doors of whose souls are shut against the summertime!

Martyr, whose short day sees our winter and our Calvary,
Show us some light, who seem forsaken by the sky:
We have so dwelt in darkness that our eyes are screened
    and dim,
And all but blinded by the weakest ray.

Hallow the vespers and December of our life,
    O martyred Lucy:
Console our solstice with your friendly day.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

From the blog of Bishop Flores of Brownsville, Texas:

These are intense days of devotion and prayer in the United States, and certainly here in the Rio Grande Valley. On December the 8, we celebrated the Immaculate Conception, Patronal Feast of our Cathedral here in the Diocese of Brownsville, and since 1847, patroness of the United States. And yet four days later, on December 12 we celebrate the great feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas. The two feasts are deeply connected in the mystery of faith. On December the 8 we recall the truth that God chooses to give the full gift of grace on his own initiative, to prepare Mary from the first moment of her conception for her mission. On December 12, we are given a vivid reminder of what that mission entails. The Virgin's presence announces that the Lord is coming to be with his people, to free us from death, darkness and sin.

On December 12, I wish I could be everywhere at once in the Rio Grande Valley; the processions, the Masses in all the parishes, in small mission chapels, and at the Basilica; las Mañanitas, the menudo and hojarascas-- it's everwhere. And it is for everyone: families, the elderly, small children in costumes; laughing, singing, high school students playing in mariachi bands, fireworks. It is joyous, reverent and a full display of the mystery of faith alive in our land. This feast is a singular grace for our diocese and our nation, worthy of a special place in the hearts of all Catholics in the United States.

There are so many reasons for this exuberance. And yet in the end they are all one simple reason keenly felt by all of us who celebrate her day. The Virgin, in her very person, -- because her person bears the Son of God-- appears in 1531 as the gentle voice announcing to a good but labored soul that heaven is kind and very close, and that the darkness will not have its way forever. There was much blood spilled in the Americas both prior to the arrival of the Spanish Empire, and after. Human sacrifice gave way to a conquest that was in many ways brutal. It was hard in those days to believe in the triumph of light over darkness, mercy over vengeance, reconciliation over recrimination. But somehow, in the Virgin's appearing, in the image of the innocent one already bearing the Son of God in her womb, the announcement of mercy went forth and was joyfully received.

This is the cause of our joy: God has appeared in our land; he has taken flesh from the Virgin; and we need not fear that the darkness will in the end prevail. She comes as the breeze that announces that the springtime of the human race is possible by the grace of God's favor. The Gospel brings this springtime, and for us in the Americas, Our Lady left us the Gospel written as an image on Juan Diego's tilma. The Gospel was the hope of the peoples of the Americas when the Virgin appeared, and it is the hope of our future as a people. There is urgent need for this hope. We in the Valley know too well that much blood is spilled senselessly for power, greed, vengeance, and drugs. A new sort of cult of death menaces our children. Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the Christ she bears forth to our world show us the way out of this encroaching despair.

Perhaps it is time to designate Our Lady of Guadalupe as Co-patroness of the United States. Most recently I read a post by Cardinal Mahony encouraging this prospect: http://cardinalrogermahonyblogsla.blogspot.com/2012/12/our-lady-of-guadalupe-patroness-of-usa.html. Together with the Immaculate Conception on December 8, and Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12, we could as Catholics in the United States renew our appreciation for the way grace works in us by contemplating the Mother of God under these two magnificent invocations. For us also, grace is given by God's wise design to both make us holy, and to send us forth to announce that the long reign of sin is ending. The one follows upon the other. There is no evangelization without holiness; and grace is given so as to be shared with a world that dwells in darkness and under the shadow of death.

Our Lady Conceived without sin, pray for us that no sin impede our reception of your Son into our lives!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray that having received him, we be worthy bearers of your Son to others!