June 29: The Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul

DIGNUM et justum est: omnipotens Pater nos tibi ingentes agere gratias: pro multiplici Apostolorum Petri et Pauli gloria: quam eis per diversas munerum distributiones larga satis pietate donasti. Quos et unigeniti tui discipulos: et fecisti esse magistros. Qui ob Evangelii predicationem cum celorum preficiantur in regnis: carcerum clauduntur angustiis. Potestatem accipiunt solvendi: et ferri vinculis alligantur. Sanitatem donant: et egritudines portant. Demonibus imperant: et ab hominibus flagellantur. Mortes fugant: et fugiunt persequentes. Super mare ambulant: et labore desudant. Montes verbo transferrant: et propriis victum manibus querunt. Judicaturi Angelos: in questionem mittuntur. Cum Deo vivunt: in mundo periclitantur. Postremo Christus eis serviens pedes lavat: el facies eorum blasfemantium manus alapis collapbizat. Nihil sustinentibus pene defuit ad tolerantiam: nihil superantibus victorie non adfuit ad coronam. Si recurramus: quot ad testificandam fidei veritatem erumnarum pertulerint in tormentis frequenter suis: superfuere Martyribus. Si in mirabilibus: hoc per Christum fecere: quod Christus. Si in passionibus: hoc sustinuerunt illi necessitate mortali: quod ille voluntate moriendi. Isti ejus viribus: ille suis. Probantes doctrine auctoritatem similitudine: non equalitate doctoris. Implevit Petrus suo tempore: quod promiserat ante tempus. Posuit animam suam pro illo: quem se non crediderat negaturum. Quia ad ardue sponsionis celeritatem nimia charitate preventus non intellexit servum pro Domino dare non posse: quod pro servo ante Dominus non dedisset. Similiter non renuit crucifigi: sed equaliter non presumpsit appendi. Obiit ille rectus: iste subjectus. Ille ut majestatem ascendentis sublimitate proferret: iste ut fragilitatem descendentis humilitate monstraret.
Nec Paulus affectu minor meminit: quemsibi arrogaverat dicens: Mihi vivere Christus est: et mori lucrum. Gaudet insanientis ictibus percussoris: domitas jugo Christo offerre cervices: et pro corporis sui capite: dare corporis sui caput. Diviserunt sibi passionis Dominice vestimentum duo milites Dei: unus in patibulo: alter in gladio. Petrus in transfixione: Paulus in sanguine. His igitur dispari mortis genere: non dispari moriendi amore perfunctis. Exultet in eorum doctrinis Ecclesia Catholica: in exis religiositas universa: in memoriis Urbs Romana: in patrociniis omnis anima christiana. Неc autem omnia tu Domine operaris: qui a Prophetis demonstraris: ab Angelis adoraris: et in omni seculo Apostolorum lumine declararis. Cui merito omnes Angeli et Archangeli non cessant clamare quotidie ita dicentes:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth:
Pleni sunt celi et terra gloria majestatis tue:
Osanna filio David.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini:
Osanna in excelsis.
Agyos, Agyos, Agyos, Kyrie o Theos.

- The Inlatio of the Feast, from the Missale Mixtum (Mozarabic Rite)

Oratio Jeremiae Prophetae

A piece of Mozarabic Chant: the Prayer of Jeremiah the Prophet (Lamentations 5:1-11).

The Minor, Trivial Biblical Stuff, Part 4: The Upper-Room

And He said to them, "Behold, when you have entered into the city, there shall meet you a man, carrying a jar of water. Follow him to the house that he enters, and you shall say to the householder of the house, 'The Teacher says to you, "Where is the guest-room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"' And he shall show you a large upper-room, furnished; there make ready."

-Luke 22:10-12

The Last Supper, one of the most important events in the life of Christ wherein He instituted the Eucharist, was held in an anagaion (anything that is above ground; traditionally rendered and understood as "upper-'room'"). Now we wonder: what could this upper-room be? First, let's check how houses looked like in the 1st century.

First and foremost, we must remember that one traditional candidate for the site, known as the Cenacle, as it stands today, only reached its present form around the medieval period (there is still some debate as to exactly when), after experiencing numerous cycles of destruction and reconstruction. So, it's rather unlikely that Jesus and His disciples held their last meal in a wide, spacious Gothic room such as this - supposing that this is the actual site. The area would have looked totally different in the 1st century AD.

From Youtube: Coptic Liturgy

From Youtube: a Coptic Orthodox liturgy celebrated in English by Fr. Mauritius Anba Bishoy at the El-Samaeyeen Cathedral, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The thick accents (as well as the microphones!) might be a distraction to some, but these give a fairly good impression of the divine liturgy of the Coptic Church.

Trivia: the beginning of part 1 (below) shows the priest choosing the Lamb that would be used in the Liturgy among the loaves of bread offered and inspecting the wine as the choir repeatedly sings Kyrie Eleison (it is actually sung 41 times: the reason usually given for this is because Christ was scourged with 39 lashes, and then crowned with thorns and pierced with a spear - yielding 41).



Here are the other videos: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, and Part 11.

Crédimus in unum Deum...

Fidem, quam corde crédimus, ore autem dicámus:Crédimus in unum Deum Patrem omnipoténtem, factórem caeli et terrae, visibílium ómnium et invisibílium Conditórem.

Et in unum Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium Dei Unigénitum, et ex Patre natum ante ómnia sæcula; Deum ex Deo, Lumen ex Lúmine. Deum verum ex Deo vero; natum non factum, Omoúsion Patri, hoc est, ejúsdem cum Patre substántiae; per quem ómnia facta sunt, quae in caelo, et quae in terra.
Qui propter nos hómines, et propter nostram salútem, descendit de caelis, et incarnátus est de Spíritu Sancto ex María Vírgine, et homo factus est. Passus sub Póntio Piláto, sepúltus, tértia die resurréxit, ascéndit ad caelos, sedet ad déxteram Dei Patris omnipoténtis. Inde ventúrus est judicáre vivos et mórtuos, cujus regni non erit finis.

Et in Spíritum Sanctum, Dóminum vivificatórem, et ex Patre et Fílio procedéntem. Cum Patre et Fílio adorándum et conglorificándum; qui locútus est per prophétas.
Et unam, sanctam, Cathólicam et Apostólicam Ecclésiam.
Confitémur unum baptísma in remissiónem peccatórum.
Expectámus resurrectiónem mortuórum, et vitam ventúri saeculi.
Amen.

Thus is the Creed in the Mozarabic Rite of Spain. One interesting thing that you'll notice first here is that the Mozarabic Creed was, and is recited in the first-person plural (Crédimus...confitémur...expectamus, 'We believe...we confess...we await') as was the case with the Coptic, Ethiopian, Chaldean, and Armenian liturgies. This is in contrast to other Eastern and Western rites where the pronoun is changed to the singular (Credo...confiteor...expecto). In this respect this version preserves the form adopted by the First Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, which was in the plural.

Now this, of course predated ICEL's changing of the Roman version from the singular to the plural during translation of the text. ;)

The Minor, Trivial Biblical Stuff, Part 3: 'Mount' Calvary

We read the following from John's Gospel:

And they took Jesus and led Him away, and carrying the cross by Himself, He went out to the place called Place of a Skull (which is called in Hebrew 'Golgotha'), where they crucified Him, and with Him two others: on this side and on that side, but in the middle Jesus.

- John 19:16b-18

Nowadays, it is common to assume that the Golgotha of the Gospels was a sort of hill located a good distance from the hustle-and-bustle of Jerusalem (hence the common appellation: ‘Mount Calvary’). Many artists and filmmakers have followed suit: sometimes to the extent of showing it as a very high and steep ridge, as Mel Gibson does in his famous film The Passion of the Christ. There are even hymns entitled There is a Green Hill Far Away or On Golgotha's Hill Christ the Son.

Close reading of the Gospel accounts themselves however do not say anything about the location, whether it was a hill – or for that matter, that the ‘Skull Place’ was an elevated area at all; they all just say something to the effect that it was a “place (Greek topos) called ‘Skull’.” This may be one of the cases where popular conception can color our reading of the Scriptures.

The Triduum as it was in the Church of Rome: Holy Thursday from the Gelasian Sacramentary, Part 2

(Part 1 here)

RECONCILIATIO POENITENTIS AD MORTEM.

Deus misericors, Deus clemens, qui secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum peccata poenitentium deles, et praeteritorum criminum culpas venia remissionis evacuas, respice super hunc famulum tuum et remissionem sibi omnium peccatorum tota cordis confessione poscentem deprecatus exaudi. Renova in eo, piissime Pater, quicquid terrena fragilitate corruptum est vel quicquid diabolica fraude violatum est: in unitatem corporis ecclesiae tuae membrum, perfecta remissione restitue: miserere, Domine gemituum, miserere lacrimarum, et non habentem fiduciam, nisi in tua misericordia, ad sacramentum reconciliationis admitte: Per.
Maiestatem tuam, Domine, supplices deprecamur, ut huic famulo tuo, longo squalore poenitentiae macerato, miserationis tuae veniam largire digneris, ut nuptiale veste recepta, ad regalem mensam unde eiectus fuerat mereatur intrare. Per.

The Triduum as it was in the Church of Rome: Holy Thursday from the Gelasian Sacramentary, Part 1

At Rome during the 4th to 6th century, Holy Thursday was a day for the reconciliation of the penitents. In the 7th century, there were two Masses in churches celebrated by priests: one in the morning to close out Lent, and the other in the evening to commemorate the institution of the Eucharist. But during noon, a Mass was celebrated by the Pope (=Bishop of Rome) and consecrated the chrism and blessing the oils. The ministers were also instructed to reserve a portion of the "sacrifice" consecrated in this Mass for the next day: reservant de ipso sacrificio in crastinum unde communicent, as the Gelasian notes in its rubrics.

The Sacramentary contains the propers for three Masses: one for the closing of Lent, another for the chrism, and yet another for the Last Supper.

And Now...

Two random articles from E.G. Atchley's Ordo Romanus Primus that might be of some interest:

ii. Lights.

The basilicas and churches were illuminated when need was with lamps and candles, of which we have very frequent mention in the Liber Pontificalis and elsewhere. The numerous gifts, for example, recorded in the Life of St. Silvester, which although probably of later date than the time of Constantine yet belong to an early period, include large lamps in which scented oils burned, heavy silver candelabra for the nave of the Lateran Basilica, and seven bronze candlesticks before the altar in the same; and in the time of Innocent I there was said to be twenty brazen candelabra in the nave of the church of SS. Gervase and Protase, each weighing forty pounds. Later on, Pope Leo III ordained that on Sundays and festivals lights should be set on either side of the lectern during the reading of the lessons.
Prudentius makes the Prefect of the City inquire of St. Laurence for the silver scyphi in which the sacred blood was held, and for the golden candlesticks in which the tapers were set at their nocturnal meetings. Paulinus of Nola (θ 431) describes the lights in his basilica of St. Felix at the festival in the following lines:

'Now the golden doors are adorned with curtains all snow-white,
Thickly crowned with lamps the altars are brilliantly shining:
Lights are burning, and give forth the scent of the waxen papyrus,
Night and day they shine: thus night with the splendour of daylight
Blazes, and day itself, made bright with heavenly beauty,
Shines yet brighter, its light by lamps innumerable doubled.'

So, in another poem on the same subject, he mentions tapers fixed to the pillars of the church, giving forth scented odours, and lamps hanging by brazen chains in the spaces between them. These he compares to a tree full of branches, bearing little glass vessels at the end like fruit in which the lights burn: the whole candelabrum, when lit, rivalling the crowd of stars with its numerous flames.
We have got beyond mere lighting for necessity here, for the lamps were lit by day as well as by night at the festival of St. Felix: the lights are become signs of rejoicing, a common practice amongst most nations of antiquity. The well-known lines of Juvenal will suffice to recall the custom of pagan Rome:

'All things are gay: my doorway now is decked with tall branches,
And is keeping the feast with lanterns lit in the morning.'

St. Paulinus also mentions lamps (lychni) hanging by brazen chains in the basilica of St. Felix. And in the Life of Pope Hilarus we read of four golden lamps burning before the Confession in the Oratory of the Holy Cross, and ten silver candelabra hanging before the altar of the Lateran Basilica. Belisarius is recorded, in the Life of Pope Vigilius, to have offered of the spoils of the Vandals two large silver-gilt candlesticks, which stood (at the time when the biographer wrote) before the body of blessed Peter in the Vatican Basilica. There was also a branched candelabrum hanging by golden chains in the covered space (pergula) before the same Confession, given in the time of Leo III; this pope also ordained that two lamps should burn every night before the altar in the same Basilica. Pope Paschal caused them to burn by day as well as by night.

iii. Incense.

From lights to incense is but a step. The list of gifts recorded in the Liber Pontificalis under St. Silvester mentions Donum aromaticum ante altaria, after the censers. As the latter weighed thirty pounds, the passage may mean that the aromatics were burned in censers hung before the altar of the Lateran Basilica. Boniface I (418-422) is said to have ordained that no woman or man, save only a minister, should burn incense (incensum poneret). We do not meet with censers in the Liber Pontificalis before the time of Sixtus III (432-440), except in the Life of Silvester; and these latter, as was mentioned before, seem to belong rather to the time of Hilarus.
In the church of SS. Marcellinus and Peter aromatics were burned before the relics of the patron saints who were buried therein, according to the compiler of the Life of St. Silvester. Later on, Pope Sergius (687-701) hung a golden censer, with columns and a cover, before the images of St. Peter in the Vatican Basilica, 'in which incense and the odour of sweetness were put while mass was being celebrated, on festivals.' We find a similar practice at Cremona in 666, and in England under Theodore (668-690). Leo III (795-816) set up a golden censer before the vestibule of the altar in the same basilica, which weighed seventeen pounds. In the Life of Leo IV (847-855) we are told of a censer with a hanging cup (canthara) at the basilica of the Four Crowned Martyrs.
We have already dealt with the ceremonial use of incense in the pope's procession to the altar, and the deacon's procession to the ambo to read the gospel. Ordo I also mentions that the sexton and the assistant presbyter of the
stational church welcomed the pope with incense on his arrival there.
Incense was only used in the Roman rite at these two liturgical moments, save the occasional use in some basilicas of a hanging censer, burning all through the service, before some altar or image. When Amalar of Metz went to Rome for the furtherance of his liturgical studies, he found that the Ordo Romanus, by which he had set such store, had misled him in several particulars, which he recorded in the second preface to his book on the Ecclesiastical Offices. There he tells us that the Romans did not offer incense at the altar after the gospel; and there is no reference to any such practice in Ordo I, although the Gallicanized Ordo II directs it to be done.

The Minor, Trivial Biblical Stuff, Part 2: the Kapporet (aka Mercyseat)

Out of all the items described within the Bible, one of the most popular is the Ark of the Covenant. Indiana Jones famously summed it all up; it is "the chest the Hebrews used to carry the Ten Commandments around in." In the Bible, God gives Moses specific instructions on how to construct this box:

And they shall make a chest of shittim (acacia) wood: two cubits and a half its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height; and you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out shall you overlay it, and shall make on it a zer (traditionally 'crown'; most modern translations 'molding') of gold all around. And you shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, even two rings on one side of it and two rings on the second side. And you shall make poles of shittim wood and overlay them with gold, and you shall put these poles into the rings on the sides of the chest, to carry the ark with them. In the rings of the chest shall be the poles; they shall not be removed from it. And you shall put in the chest the testimony which I will give you.

The text then goes on to describe an item usually thought of as the Ark's lid, called in Hebrew kapporet, traditionally called the mercy-seat (Exodus 25:17-20):

And you shall make a kapporet of pure gold: two cubits and a half its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth; and you shall make two kheruvim of gold, of beaten work you shall make them at the two ends of the kapporet; and make one kheruv at the end on this side, and one kheruv at the end on that; from the kapporet you shall make the keruvim on its two ends. And the kheruvim shall stretch out their wings upward, overshadowing (sokhekhim; other possible renderings are 'covering', 'screening', 'hedging') the kapporet with their wings, and their faces a man to his brother - towards the kapporet the faces of the kheruvim shall be.

January 1 - The Circumcision of Christ and Mary, Mother of God (the Octave of Christmas)

The propers of the feast (without the readings), from the Vatican Gelasian Sacramentary, aka Old Gelasian (Vatican, Bibliotheca Apostolica, Reg. lat. 316/Paris, B.N., 7193, 41-56):

ITEM IN OCTABAS DOMINI. KALENDAS IANUARIAS
(Liber I.VIIII)

Deus qui bonis nati saluatoris diem celebrare concedis octauum, fac, quaesumus, nos esse perpetua diuinitate munere, cuius sumus carnali conmercio reparati: per.

Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui unigenito tuo nouam creaturam nos tibi esse fecisti, custodi opera misericordiae tuae et ab omnibus nos maculis uetustatis emunda, ut per auxilium gratiae tuae in illius inueniamur forma, in quo tecum est nostra substantia: per.

(secreta) Praesta, quaesumus, domine, ut per hanc munera, qui domini Iesu Christi arcanae natiuitatis mysterio gerimus, purificate mentes intellegentiam consequamur: per dominum.

Uere dignum: per Christum dominum nostrum. Cuius hodie octauas nati celebrantes tua, domine, mirabilia ueneramur, quia qui peperit, et mater et uirgo est; qui natus est, et infans et deus est. Merito caeli locuti Sunt, angeli gratulati, pastores laetati, magi mutati, regis turbati, paruoli gloriosa passione coronati. Lacta, mater, cybum nostrum, lacta panem de caelo uenientem, in praesepio positum uelut piorum cybaria iumentorum. Illic namque agnouit bos possessorem suum et asinus praesepium domini sui, circumcisio scilicet et praeputium. Quod etiam saluator et dominus noster a Symione susceptus in templo plenissimae dignatus est adimplere. Et ideo cum angelis et archangelis.

(post communionem) Praesta, quaesumus, domine, ut guod saluatoris nostri iterata solempnitate percipimus, perpetuae nobis redemptionis conferat medicinam: per.

(ad populum) Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui tuae mensae participes a diabolico iubes abstinere conuiuio, da, quaesumus, plebi tuae, ut gustum mortiferae profanitatis abiecto puris mentibus ad aepulas aeternae salutis accedat: per.

From the Angoulême Sacramentary (B.N. Lat. 816):

XII. KALENDAS IANVARII. OCTABAS DOMINI AD SANCTAM MARIAM
(Liber I. VIIII)

Deus qui bonis nati saluatoris diem celebrare concedis octauum, fac, quaesumus, nos esse perpetua diuinitate munere, cuius sumus carnali conmercio reparati: per.

Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui unigenito tuo nouam creaturam nos tibi esse fecisti, custodi opera misericordiae tuae et ab omnibus nos maculis uetustatis emunda, ut per auxilium gratiae tuae in illius inueniamur forma, in quo tecum est nostra substantia: per.

(secreta) Praesta, quaesumus, domine, ut per hanc munera, qui domini Iesu Christi arcanae natiuitatis mysterio gerimus, purificate mentes intellegentiam consequamur: per dominum.

Uere dignum: per Christum dominum nostrum. Cuius hodie octauas nati celebrantes tua, domine, mirabilia ueneramur, quia qui peperit, et mater et uirgo est; qui natus est, et infans et deus est. Merito caeli locuti Sunt, angeli gratulati, pastores laetati, magi mutati, regis turbati, paruoli gloriosa passione coronati. Lacta, mater, cybum nostrum, lacta panem de caelo uenientem, in praesepio positum uelut piorum cybaria iumentorum. Illic namque agnouit bos possessorem suum et asinus praesepium domini sui, circumcisio scilicet et praeputium. Quod etiam saluator et dominus noster a Symione susceptus in templo plenissimae dignatus est adimplere. Et ideo cum angelis et archangelis.

(post communionem) Praesta, quaesumus, domine, ut guod saluatoris nostri iterata solempnitate percipimus, perpetuae nobis redemptionis conferat medicinam: per.

(ad populum) Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui tuae mensae participes a diabolico iubes abstinere conuiuio, da, quaesumus, plebi tuae, ut gustum mortiferae profanitatis abiecto puris mentibus ad aepulas aeternae salutis accedat: per.

From the Cambrai Hadrianum (Bibl. Municipale MS 164):

MENSE IANUARIO IN OCTABAS DOMINI AD SANCTAM MARIAM AD MARTYRES

Deus, qui salutis aeternae beatae mariae virginitate fecunda humano generi praemia praestitisti, tribue quaesumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus, per quam meruimus auctorem vitae suscipere. Per dominum.

Super oblata. Muneribus nostris quaesumus, domine, precibusque susceptis, et caelestibus nos munda mysteriis et clementer exaudi. Per dominum.

Ad completa. Haec nos communio domine purget a crimine, et caelestibus remediis faciat esse consortes. Per.

From the 1962 Missale Romanum:

IN OCTAVA NATIVITATIS DOMINI
I classis
Statio ad S. Mariam trans Tiberim

Oratio: Deus, qui salutis aeternae, beatae Mariae virginitate fecunda, humano generi praemia praestitisti: tribue, quaesumus; ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus, per quam meruimus auctorem vitae suscipere, Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Filium tuum: Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate.

Secreta: Muneribus nostris, qusesumus, Domine, precibusque susceptis: et caelestibus nos munda mysteriis, et clementer exaudi. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum.

(Praefatio et Communicantes de Nativitate)

Postcommunio: Haec nos communio, Domine, purget a crimine: et, intercedente beata Virgine Dei Genetrice Maria, caelestis remedii faciat esse consortes. Per eundem Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Filium tuum: Qui tecum vivitet regnat in unitate.

From the 2002 Missale Romanum:

SOLLEMNITAS SANCTAE DEI GENITRICIS MARIAE IN OCTAVA NATIVITATIS DOMINI
Deus, qui salutis aeternae, beatae Mariae virginitate fecunda, humano generi praemia praestitisti, tribue, quaesumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus, per quam meruimus Filium tuum auctorem vitae suscipere...

Super Oblata: Deus, qui bona cuncta inchoas benignus et perficis, da nobis, de sollemnitate sanctae Dei Genetricis laetantibus, sicut de initiis tuae gratiae gloriamur, ita de perfectione gaudere.

Postcommunio: Sumpsimus, Domine, laeti sacramenta caelestia: praesta, quaesumus, ut ad vitam nobis proficient sempiternam, qui beatam semper Virginem Mariam Filii tui Genetricem et Ecclesiae Matrem profiteri gloriamur...

December 25 - The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

From lands that see the sun arise,
to earth's remotest boundaries,
the Virgin-born today we sing,
the Son of Mary, Christ the King.

Blest Author of this earthly frame,
to take a servant's form He came,
that liberating flesh by flesh,
whom He had made might live afresh.

In that chaste parent's holy womb,
celestial grace hath found its home:
and she, as earthly bride unknown,
yet call that Offspring blest her own.

A Merry Christ's-Mass to all readers!

The O Antiphons: O Emmanuel (Day 7)

Day 7: O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,
Exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum:
Veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Deus noster.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver,
The hope of the nations and their Savior:
Come and save us, O Lord our God!

Quotes for the day:

And YHWH added to speak to Achaz, saying, "Ask for yourself a sign from YHWH your God. Make it deep as Sheol, or make it high upwards."
And Achaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not test YHWH!"
And he said:
"Hear now, O house of David!
Is it a small thing for you to weary men,
That you weary my God also?
Therefore Adonai Himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin is conceiving and is bearing a son
And will call his name Immanu-El.
Curds and honey he will eat,
For his knowing to reject evil and to choose good;
For before the boy knows to reject evil and to choose good,
Forsaken will be the land which you fear because of her two kings."

Isaiah 7:10-16

And of [Jesus] Christ, the birth was thus:
His mother Mary having been betrothed to Joseph, before their coming together she was found to have conceived from the Holy Spirit, and Joseph her husband being righteous, and not wanting to disgrace her, intented to divorce her privately.
Now on his thinking of these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which in her was begotten is of the Holy Spirit; and she will bear a son, and you will call His name 'Jesus', for He will save His people from their sins."
And all this came to be that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: "Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call His name Emmanouel,' which translated is, 'With us is God.'"
And Joseph, having risen from the sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife, and was not knowing her until she bore her son - the first-born, and he called His name 'Jesus'.

-Matthew 1:18-25

ERO CRAS
"Tomorrow, I will come."

The O Antiphons: O Rex Gentium (Day 6)

Day 6: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,
Lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
Veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.

O King of the nations, and their desire,
The corner-stone, who makes both one:
Come and save man,
which you formed from clay.

Quotes for the day:

And YHWH Elohim formed man - dust from the ground, and breathed into his nose the breath of life; and the man became a living soul.

-Genesis 2:7

A stone which the builders rejected has become a head of the corner;
From YHWH has this been, it is wonderful in our eyes!

-Psalm 118:22-23

And it will happen in the end of the days,
That the mount of YHWH's house will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And it will be lifted up above the hills,
And all the nations will flow into it.
And many peoples will come and say,
"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of YHWH,
To the house of the God of Ya'akov;
And He will teach us of His ways,
And we will walk in His paths."
For from Zion a law will go out,
And a word of YHWH from Yerushalaim.
And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decision for many peoples;
And they will beat their swords to plowshares,
And their spears into pruning-hooks,
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
Nor will they learn any more - war.
O house of Ya'akov, come and let us walk in the light of YHWH!

-Isaiah 2:2-5

Therefore, hear a word of YHWH, men of scorning,
Ruling this people in Yerushalaim. For you have said,
"We have cut a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we have made a pact,
An overflowing scourge, when it passes by, will not come to us,
For we have made a lie our refuge,
And in deception we have hidden ourselves."

Therefore, thus said Lord YHWH,
"Behold, I am laying a foundation in Zion a stone:
a tested stone, a precious corner-stone, a settled foundation;
He who is believing will not make haste.
And I will make judgment the measuring-line,
And righteousness the plummet;
And hail will sweep away the refuge - the lie,
And the hiding-place will waters overflow.
And your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your pact with Sheol will not stand.
An overflowing scourge, when it passes by, you will be to it for a trampling-place.
From the fullness of its passing over it will seize you,
For morning by morning it will pass over - by day and by night,
And it will be only a trembling to understand the report."

-Isaiah 28:14-19

Therefore remember that you, once Nations in the flesh - who are called "Uncircumcision" by those called "Circumcision" made in the flesh by hands - that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world; and now in Christ Jesus you who once were afar off became near by the blood of the Christ.
For He is our peace, who has made the both one, and has broken down the middle wall of the enclosure, having inactivated the hostility in His flesh - the law of the commandments in ordinances, that the two He might create in Himself into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, by killing the hostility in Himself. And having come, He did proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; because through Him we have the access - we both - in one Spirit to the Father.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and are of the household of God, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being corner-stone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom also you are being built together for a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.

-Ephesians 2:11-22

The O Antiphons: O Oriens (Day 5)

Day 5: O Oriens (O Rising Sun)

O Oriens,
Splendor lucis aeternae, et sol iustitiae:
Veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis.

O Rising Sun,
Splendor of light eternal, and sun of righteousness:
Come and shine on those seated in darkness and the shadow of death!

Quotes for the day:

Indeed there is no gloom for her, to whom there was anxiety for her;
Just as in earlier times He humiliated the land of Zvulun and the land of Naftali,
In the latter times He has honored the Way of the Sea, Beyond the Yarden, Galil of the nations.
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light,
Dwellers in a land of death-shadow - upon them light has shined.

-Isaiah 9:1-2

Arise! Shine! For your light comes, and the glory of YHWH has risen upon you!
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the people;
And YHWH will arise over you, and His glory upon you will be seen.
And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawning.

-Isaiah 60:1-2

"For behold, the day will come, burning like a furnace,
And all the arrogant and all who do wickedly will be chaff.
And the day that comes will burn them up," said YHWH Tzevaot, "That it will not leave them root or branch."
"And to you who revere my name the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings,
And you will go out and skip about like calves from a stall,
And you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am fashioning," said YHWH Tzevaot.
"Remember the law of Mosheh my servant which I commanded him in Chorev for all Israel - statutes and ordinances.
Behold, I am sending to you Eliyah the prophet before the coming of the day of YHWH - the great and the terrible;
And he will turn the heart of fathers to sons, and the heart of sons to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the land with a ban!"

-Malachi 4:1-6

Now when [Jesus] heard that John had been handed over, He went into Galilaia; and leaving Nazara, He came and settled in Kapharnaoum by-the-sea, in the districts of Zaboulon and Nephtalim, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying:
"Land of Zaboulon, land of Nephtalim, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Iordan, Galilaia of the nations!
The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light, and on those sitting in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."

-Matthew 4:12-16