13/33 "O Sapientia" and the great "O Antiphons" (Day 1 of 7: Knowledge of Self)
"Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation."
Welcome back to our Consecration Journey. Click below for audio intro.
Today, we INVITE YOU TO LEARN THE “O ANTIPHON” for DECEMBER 17th in LATIN / ENGLISH BELOW as DAY 1 of 7 in the "KNOWLEDGE OF SELF" portion of the CHRISTMAS CONSECRATION JOURNEY.
By knowing the "seven magnificent Messianic titles", based on the Old Testament prophecies, we recall as the Mystical Body the limits of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer".
December 17 marks the beginning of the Christmas Novena — giving us time to learn each of the "O" Antiphons -- an ancient part of our liturgy that dates back to the 4th century, with one Antiphon for each day until Christmas Eve.
Fr. Elias Mary Mills, FI, has provided Spiritual Direction for this segment of the Consecration, suggesting a focus on each of the "O Antiphons".
See below the subtitled music, related readings, and etc. to add to your Rosary Compline of the Joyful Mysteries for this evening. “O Sapienta” (O Wisdom)
“O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodísti, attíngens a fine usque ad finem, fórtiter suáviterque disponénsque ómnia: veni ad docéndum nos viam prudéntiae.”
O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation.
O Sapientia / O Wisdom will be sung on December 17 before and after the Magnificat:1
c.f. Sirach 24:3, “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth like a mist.”
c.f. Wisdom 8:1, “she reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well.”
c.f. Isaiah 40:14, “Come, and teach us the way of prudence.”
Related Reading: Proverbs 8:1-12
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
Proverbs 8
Doth not wisdom cry aloud, and prudence put forth her voice?
2 Standing in the top of the highest places by the way, in the midst of the paths.
3 Beside the gates of the city, in the very doors she speaketh, saying:
4 O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.
5 O little ones, understand subtilty, and ye unwise, take notice.
6 Hear, for I will speak of great things: and my lips shall be opened to preach right things.
7 My mouth shall meditate truth, and my lips shall hate wickedness.
8 All my words are just, there is nothing wicked nor perverse in them.
9 They are right to them that understand, and just to them that find knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction, and not money: choose knowledge rather than gold.
11 For wisdom is better than all the most precious things: and whatsoever may be desired cannot be compared to it.
12 I wisdom dwell in counsel, and am present in learned thoughts.
ENGLISH:
Breviary: Night Prayer for Dec. 4, 2024
INTRODUCTION
God, + come to my assistance.
— Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.
Examination of Conscience
A brief examination of conscience may be made. In the communal celebration of the Office, a Penitential Rite using the formulas of the Mass may be inserted here.
https://fathersofmercy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Exam.A4.pdf
HYMN: O Antiphon #1, “O SAPIÉNTIA” with the Magnificat (Canto Gregoriano)
Gospel Canticle:
Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)
Recite the First O Antiphon of the Day, “O Sapientia”, then recite the Magnificat for Evening Prayer:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and Holy is His Name. He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation. He has shown the strength of His arm, He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has come to the help of His servant Israel for He has remembered His promise of mercy, the promise He made to our fathers, to Abraham and His children for ever.
Sing or recite the O Antiphon, “O Sapientia” in Latin (or “O Wisdom” in English), the ritual on December 17th.
PSALMODY
Antiphon:
“In you, my God, my body will rest in hope”.
Psalm 16: God is my portion, my inheritance
The Father raised up Jesus from the dead and broke the bonds of death (Acts 2:24).
Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you. †
I say to the Lord: “You are my God. *
My happiness lies in you alone.”
He has put into my heart a marvelous love *
for the faithful ones who dwell in his land.
Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows. †
Never will I offer their offerings of blood. *
Never will I take their name upon my lips.
O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup; *
it is you yourself who are my prize.
The lot marked out for me is my delight: *
welcome indeed the heritage that falls to me!
I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel, *
who even at night directs my heart.
I keep the Lord ever in my sight: *
since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.
And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad; *
even my body shall rest in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead, *
nor let your beloved know decay.
You will show me the path of life, †
the fullness of joy in your presence, *
at your right hand happiness for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, *
and will be for ever. Amen.
Ant. In you, my God, my body will rest in hope.
A READING from 1 Thessalonians 5:23
May the God of peace make you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body, irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
RESPONSORY
Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
— Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
You have redeemed us, Lord God of truth.
— I commend my spirit.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
— Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
GOSPEL CANTICLE
Antiphon:
Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.
Canticle of Simeon
Luke 2:29-32
Christ is the light of the nations and the glory of Israel
Lord, + now you let your servant go in peace; *
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation *
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations *
and the glory of your people Israel.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, *
and will be for ever. Amen.
ANTIPHON:
Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Let us pray.
Lord God,
send peaceful sleep
to refresh our tired bodies.
May your help always renew us
and keep us strong in your service.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
— Amen.
BLESSING
May the all-powerful Lord
grant us a restful night
and a peaceful death.
— Amen.
Now, we invite you to pray 1 to 5 decades of the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary:
Antiphon or song in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Loving mother of the Redeemer,
gate of heaven, star of the sea,
assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.
To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,
yet remained a virgin after as before.
You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting,
have pity on us poor sinners.
Or:
Alma Redemptóris Mater, quæ pérvia cæli
porta manes, et stella maris, succúrre cadénti,
súrgere qui curat, pópulo: tu quæ genuísti,
natúra miránte, tuum sanctum Genitórem,
Virgo prius ac postérius, Gabriélis ab ore
sumens illud Ave, peccatórum miserére.
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SHARE THE FAITH WITH OTHERS IN A NUTSHELL: KNOWLEDGE OF SELF
What is Christmas all about?
Fr. Elias notes that it takes 30 days to change a habit. James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits” further adds that2
According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors on any given day.
Clear argues that:
Understanding how to build new habits (and how your current ones work) is essential for making progress in your health, your happiness, and your life in general.
In many ways, this consecration journey is all about asking God for the grace to change our habits around Christmas (and our encounter / encontros with others) such that we might ask the Blessed Mother to increase our faith, hope and love which transforms our approaches to prayer so that we can develop new habits which will renew our courage and understanding of the mysteries of Advent and the depth of the 3rd Joyful Mystery.
Each year, we might ask ourselves:
Am I best prepared for those challenging conversations at Christmas which allow me to better than last year, “nutshell” of message the Gospel?
In the first post of this Consecration Journey, we asked you to review the following video “Amazed and Afraid”. How did it help you rethink your approach to others you will meet this Christmas? How are you actively renewing your self-knowledge and sharpening the saw when it comes to telling others the story of Christ?
Is there a way we can pray to God this year to make more fruitful our encounters with Godchildren, family and even friends who don’t know about God might soon come to know Him as we know Him this year?
In the following video, once again, Bishop Barron provides a compelling argument in this first episode on “Catholicism”, not just about why we believe what we believe, but also about the importance of Christ’s birth in the context of human history.
On December 3rd, we remembered St. Francis Xavier who wrote a letter to St. Ignatius of Loyola, frustrated that his friend wasn’t sending more missionaries to the missions in Asia, and instead to the learned in Rome and (also in Paris, France).
Here is his letter:
DIRECTIONS
May the grace and charity of our Lord Christ always be with us!
Amen.
My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the many letters from this place which have lately been sent to Rome will inform you how prosperously the affairs of religion go on in these parts, through your prayers and the good bounty of God.
But there seem to be certain things which I ought myself to speak about to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to these parts of the world which are so distant from Rome.
He begins that of the people he encounters:
It troubles itself very little to learn anything about divine things and things which concern salvation.
He complains that they are
“of vicious disposition, and are adverse to virtue. Their instability, levity, and inconstancy of mind are incredible; they have hardly any honesty, so inveterate are their habits of sin and cheating.”
Of his own situation, he notes:
We have hard work here, both in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the heathen. And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this account you should take great care of us and help us continually by your prayers to God. You know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who neither have any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it a strange and intolerable thing to be told to give up their habits of sin, which have now gained all the force of nature by long possession.
He continues,
The experience which I have of these countries makes me think that I can affirm with truth, that there is no prospect of perpetuating our Society out here by means of the natives themselves, and that the Christian religion will hardly survive us who are now in the country; so that it is quite necessary that continual supplies of ours should be sent out from Europe.
He reports of this mission that:
We have now some of the Society in all parts of India where there are Christians. Four are in the Moluccas, two at Malacca, six in the Comorin Promontory, two at Coulan, as many at Bazain, four at Socotra. The distances between these places are immense; for instance, the Moluccas are more than a thousand leagues from Goa, Malacca five hundred, Cape Comorin two hundred, Coulan one hundred and twenty, Bazain sixty, and Socotra three hundred. In each place there is one of the Society who is Superior of the rest. As these Superiors are men of remarkable prudence and virtue, the others are very well content.
Of the Christians present, he notes, however:
The Portuguese in these countries are masters only of the sea and of the coast. On the mainland they have only the towns in which they live. The natives themselves are so enormously addicted to vice as to be little adapted to receive the Christian religion. They so dislike it that it is most difficult to get them to hear us if we begin to preach about it, and they think it like death to be asked to become Christians. So for the present we devote ourselves to keeping the Christians whom we have. Certainly, if the Portuguese were more remarkable for their kindness to the new converts, a great number would become Christians; as it is, the heathen see that the converts are despised and looked down upon by the Portuguese, and so, as is natural, they are unwilling to become converts themselves.
The observation begs the question of us all today.
How do we treat those who are new to the Faith? Do we model to fellow Christians kindness that inspires others to become Christian? or do we look down upon them as if we are better than them? Do we ever reject those new to the Faith, who are still learning the Faith? Do we actively invite them to pray with us? to sing with us? Do we ask them to be part of our conversations or our gatherings?
How do we listen to Deuteronomy 15:7-11?
If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother. / Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs. / Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. ...
OR to
Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
OR to
2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
St. Francis notes, with frustration, that he can not do anything where the situation exists:
For all these reasons there is no need for me to labor in these countries, and as I have learnt from good authorities that there is a country near China called Japan, the inhabitants of which are all heathen, quite untouched by Mussulmans or Jews, and very eager to learn what they do not know both in things divine and things natural, I have determined to go thither as soon as I can....
(One can read about St. Francis Xavier’s trip to Japan in the footnotes3)
This Christmas, how might we invite new people in our parishes to learn the Faith, the Rosary, etc. This coming Sunday, ask:
Am I doing everything in my power to find ways to teach others, even with silent invitations at the entrance, about the Blessed Mother?
Am I finding ways to share the prayers / devotions prayed? or am I keeping them to myself?
Am I asking the pastor about thoughts on leaving donated Rosaries or sacramentals near the entrance of the Church or finding ways together to invite them to know the Blessed Mother even more intimately this Christmas? Am I doing everything in my power to start a Rosary tradition or invite others to pray together?
Do I carry mission in my heart? For instance, am I regularly and actively ensuring I have extra prayer cards or books or resources on my person that might this Christmas better help others God is calling me to help (as He called St. Francis Xavier) to find God?
How might God be calling me to teach others about the Rosary? Children? My family? My friends?
How might God be calling me to respond as St. Francis did, taking the time to inform through our letters the figures of St. Ignatius in our lives with recommendations for places where people are spiritually poor?
How can I increase hospitality to others who are new to our communities? How can I better encounter them? What am I doing now that could be improved tomorrow?
If St. Francis saw me at the doors of the Church, would he approve?
Would he see me finding ways to be even more welcoming or helpful to others at Christmas? offering them our time? our presence? a smile? A hello? Even children or elderly who feel disconnected? Am I finding creative ways to encounter others? How?
Thank you for listening to The Rosary Hour Podcast. Pray the Rosary Every Day.
FOOTNOTES
Also see this learning video: