O WISDOM, O SAPIENTIA
THE GREAT O
ANTIPHONS OF ADVENT
ulian
of Norwich
opens her Westminster Cathedral Manuscript
text of the Showing of Love with a Great O, an Omega, rather
than
an Alpha, invoking the Great O Antiphon of Advent, 'O Sapientia', said
by Mary worshiping her not-yet-born Child, tenting within her. The
passage
is from the Book of Wisdom, but echoes also Dante's Bernard's use of
this
paradox, when worshiping Mary, worshiping Christ, to be translated by
Chaucer
for his Second Nun in the Canterbury Tales.
Ure
gracious
&
goode/ lorde god shewed me in/ party the wisdom & the trewthe/ of
the
soule of oure blessed lady/ saynt mary. Where in I under/stood the
reuerent
beholdynge/ that she beheld her god that is/ her maker. maruelyng with/
grete reuerence that he wolde/ be borne of her that was a/ simple
creature
of his makyng.
n the English Sarum Use there
are
eight Great O Antiphons, ending with an evocation of Calvary, 'O
Daughters
of Jerusalem'; in Continental Roman Use, there are only seven. Hence
the
date is pushed back one earlier in England, for 'O Sapientia', etc. The
chanted music for these passages, sung by the full choir, is most
beautiful.
If any reader can give us a digital recording of 'O Sapientia' for this
web essay we should be most grateful. It is music Julian likely would
have
sung had she been at Benedictine Carrow Priory.
16 December
Wisdom,
which camest out of the mouth of the most High, and reachest from one
end
to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us
the way of prudence.
17 December
aSapientia,
quae ex ore Altissimi prodisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem,
fortiter
suaviter disponensque omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
aAdonai
and Leader of the house of Israel, who appearedst in the Bush of Moses
in a flame of fire, and gavest him the law in Sinai: Come and deliver
us
with an outstretched arm.
aAdonai,
et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei
in
sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
Root
of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people, at whom kings
shall
shut their mouths, to whom the Gentiles shall seek: Come and deliver
us,
and tarry not.
19 December
aRadix
Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os
suum,
quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
Key
of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel; that openest, and no man
shuttests, and shuttest, and no man openeth: come and bring the
prisoner
out of the prison house, and him that sittest in darkness, and the
shadow
of death.
20 December
aClavis
David, et sceptrum domus Israel: qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis,
et nemo aperit: venit, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in
tenebris
et umbra mortis.
Day-Spring,
Brightness of Light, everlasting and sun of Righteousness: Come and
enlighten
him that sitteth in darkness, and the shadow of death.
21 December
aOriens,
splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes
in
tenebris et umbra mortis.
aKing
of the Nations, and their Desire; the Cornerstone, who makest both one:
Come and save mankind, whom thou formedst of clay.
22 December
aRex
gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque
unum:
veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.
Emmanuel,
our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations, and their Salvation:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.
23 December
aEmmanuel,
Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad
salvandum nos Domine Deus noster.
Virgin
of Virgins, how shall this be? for neither before thee was any like
thee,
nor shall there be after: Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me?
the thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.
Virgo virginum,
quomodo fiet istud? Quia nec primam similem visa es nec habere
sequentem.
Filiae Ierusalem, quid me
admiramini?
Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.
Antiphons.
In Memory of Andrew Dickson
Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons . . . It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Vaclav Havel
Malcolm Guite 2006/7
O Wisdom, coming forth
from the
mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the
other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of
prudence.
O
Sapientia
I cannot think unless I have
been thought
Nor can I speak unless I have
been spoken
I cannot teach except as I am
taught
Or break the bread except as I
am broken.
O Mind behind the mind through
which I seek,
O Light within the light by
which I see,
O Word beneath the words with
which I speak
O founding, unfound Wisdom,
finding me
O sounding Song whose depth is
sounding me
O Memory of time, reminding me
My Ground of Being, always
grounding me
My Maker’s Bounding Line,
defining me
Come,
hidden
Wisdom, come with all you bring
Come
to me
now, disguised as everything.
O
Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
O
Adonai, and leader of
the House of Israel,
who appeared to Moses in the fire
of the burning bush
and gave him the law on Sinai:
Come and redeem us with an
outstretched arm
O Adonai
Unsayable, you chose to speak
one tongue
Unseeable, you gave yourself
away,
The Adonai, the Tetragramaton
Grew by a wayside in the light
of day.
O you who dared to be a tribal
God,
o own a language, people and a
place,
Who chose to be exploited and
betrayed,
If so you might be met with face
to face,
Come to us here, who would not
find you there,
Who chose to know the skin and
not the pith,
Who heard no more than thunder
in the air,
Who marked the mere events and
not the myth.
Touch the bare branches of our
unbelief
And blaze again like fire in
every leaf.
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum
populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os
suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
O Root of Jesse, stand as a sign
among the peoples;
before you kings will shut their
mouths,
to you the nations will make
their prayer:
Come and deliver us,
and delay no longer
O
Radix
All of us sprung from one
deep-hidden seed,
Rose from a root invisible to
all.
We knew the virtues once of
every weed,
But, severed from the roots of
ritual,
We surf the surface of a
wide-screen world
And find no virtue in the
virtual.
We shrivel on the edges of a wood
Whose heart we once inhabited in
love,
Now we have need of you,
forgotten Root
The stock and stem of every
living thing
Whom once we worshiped in the
sacred grove,
For now is winter, now is
withering
Unless we let you root us deep
within,
Under the ground of being, graft
us in.
O Key of David and sceptre of the
House of Israel
you open and no one can shut;
you shut and no one can open:
Come and lead the prisoners from
the prison house,
those who dwell in darkness and
the shadow of death
O
Clavis
Even in the darkness where I sit
And huddle in the midst of misery
I can remember freedom, but
forget
That every lock must answer to a
key
That each dark clasp, sharp and
intricate,
Must find a counter-clasp to
meet its guard.
Particular, exact and intimate,
The clutch and catch that meshes
with its ward.
I cry out for the key I threw
away
That turned and over turned with
certain touch
And with the lovely lifting of a
latch
Opened my darkness to the light
of day.
O come again, come quickly, set
me free
splendor lucis
aeternae,
veni, et illumina sedentes
in tenebris, et umbra mortis
Splendour of light eternal and
sun of righteousness:
Come and enlighten those who
dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
O Oriens
Paradiso XXX; 61
First light and then first
lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen
of light on water
As though behind the sky
itself they traced
The shift and shimmer of
another river
Flowing unbidden from its
hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal
Prima Vera.
Blake saw it too. Dante and
Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away
upstream…
So every trace of light
begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The
smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a
calling;
“Sleeper awake, the darkness
was a dream
For you will see the
Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line
the dawn is breaking”
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus
earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis
utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
O King of the nations, and their
desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save the human race,
which you fashioned from clay
O
Rex Gentium
O King of our desire whom we
despise,
King of the nations never on
the throne,
Unfound foundation, cast-off
cornerstone,
Rejected joiner, making many
one,
You have no form or beauty
for our eyes,
A King who comes to give
away his crown,
A King within our rags of
flesh and bone.
We pierce the flesh that
pierces our disguise,
For we ourselves are found
in you alone.
Come to us now and find in
us your throne,
O King within the child
within the clay,
O hidden King who shapes us
in the play
Of all creation. Shape us
for the day
Your coming Kingdom comes
into its own.
Rex
et legifer
noster,
exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator
earum:
veni ad salvandum nos, Domine,
Deus noster
O Emmanuel,
our King and Lawgiver,
the Desire of all nations, and their Salvation:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.
