Today I want to share with you something I learned about at a Steve Bell concert last week, and have been reading about ever since. The song “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is based on 7 antiphons that the ancient church traditionally meditated on during the 7 days leading up to Christmas (17-23). Below are the prophetic names of Christ that the antiphons (a responsive style of choir singing) are based on.
O Emmanuel (God With Us) “Heart of heaven beating in the earth”
O Sapientia (Wisdom) “Sweetly ordering all things”
O Radix (Root) “The stock and stem of every living thing”
O Oriens (Daystar) “Splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness”
O Clavis (Key) “Opening our darkness to the light of day”
O Adonai (Great Lord) “Redeem us with an outstretched arm”
O Rex Gentium (Desire of Nations) “A King within our rags of flesh and bone”
Malcolm Guite has written sonnets in response to these antiphons and I have been particularly captured by one of these… the 5th one
O CLAVIS by Malcolm Guite
Even in th
e 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
Cut to the quick to fit, the master key.