The O Antiphons: 18 December – O Adonai
LATIN: O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
ENGLISH: O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.
Scripture References:
Exodus 3
Micah 5:2
Matthew 2:6
Relevant verse of Veni, Veni Emmanuel:
O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty, and awe.
“Adonai” is “LORD.” It was the Hebrew word that the Jews used when they found the four-lettered word for God’s name which they held to be too sacred to pronounce aloud. The four letter word for God’s Name, the Tetragrammaton, is still venerated by us to the point that Holy Church asks us not to use it in liturgical song.
Christ is Lord, Lord of Creation. We sang this yesterday in the antiphon “O Sapientia“. Christ is also Lord of the Covenant with the People He chose.
The Lord made covenants with Noah, Abraham, and Moses. He guided them and all the People. He gave them Law. He protected and feed them. The Lord delivered them from bondage to Pharaoh and unending slavery. He went before them with arm outstretched.
This was all a pre-figuring of the great work of redemption that Christ would work on the Cross. He redeemed us His People from Satan and the eternal damnation of hell.
He once appeared clothed in the burning bush that was not consumed by fire.
He is about to appear again clothed in flesh in our liturgical celebration of Christmas.
He will appear again one day in the future to judge the living and the dead.
He appears to us each day in the person of our neighbor.
What amazing contrasts we find in our Lord! He came in thunder and lightening to give the Law on Mt. Sinai. He comes now in swaddling clothes. He will come again in glory. He comes humbly in the appearance of Bread and Wine.
He still goes before us with outstretched arm and our foes are put to flight at the sight of His banner!
Loading ...
I have to admit that this one…….He appears to us each day in the person of our neighbor…….. I am really really bad at.
It is only this year that I discovered the significance of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. What a treasure trove I was missing before I jumped into the Tiber. It is a joy to be discovering the richness that is the Catholic heritage that I will soon be able to call mine.
Fr Z wrote…” The four letter word for God’s Name, the Tetragrammaton, is still venerated by us to the point that Holy Church asks us not to use it in liturgical song.” I wonder if Fr Z could cite chapter and verse as to where the Church asks us not to use the Holy Name of God? I’d like to be able to quote it at our parish Liturgy Committee!!
Whenever we have the hymn “Yahweh, I know you are here” at Mass I simply don’t sing the Holy Name of God: I sing, quietly, “Lord”. If God’s name was too holy for King David, King Solomon and the prophet Isaiah to pronounce out loud, who are we to presume to say or sing it? Yet I notice that in our church hymn book there are three hymns, all of them post-Vatican II, beginning with the Holy Name of God! Where in the documents of Vatican II are we given permission to use the Holy Name in this way?
Simon_GNR: Yes. Here is a link to a news piece about that. HERE.
Pingback: O Adonai « Piscotikus.com
How hard is it, really, in any case, to avoid pronouncing a name with no vowels in it? Oh, but leave it to us to throw a few in there just so that we can pronounce it…just so that every last sacred thing, even up to and including the sacred and unutterable proper name of the Almighty, may be brought down to street level and tossed about with abandon by every blessed idiot who thinks that the Deity is pleased by our pretense at hokey sentimental familiarity with Him.
I’m not even comfortable with tossing the name of Jesus about, to be honest. It seems to me as I read the Gospels that Christ’s disciples always address Him as “Lord” or “Rabbi” or “Master”. Is there even one instance in the New Testament wherein a believer actually addresses Our Lord by His name? Is there a moment when any of the apostles calls him “Jesus”?
I have never really been keen, therefore, on prayers that address the Lord as “Dear Jesus,” “Sweet Jesus,” or “O my Jesus.” I am, then, ever so much less enamoured of this habit of more recent times that some have developed of referring to God the Almighty Father as “Yahweh” (most often nuns of a uniform hairstyle and clergymen who like to hug) . Call me old-fashioned but “Lord” will do, when addressing the Creator of the Universe, I think.
Amazingly the Bishops’ conference of England and Wales actually has a copy of the letter from the CDW on the Holy Name of God (is that still a feast in the OF calendar?) on its website: direct link below so you don’t have to read the other
rubbishstuff.http://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Documents/Name_CDW.pdf
I wish they had gone a step further than declaring it not to be pronounced “in Catholic liturgy”, but rather that it should never be pronounced at all! How dare we, as creatures, presume to put a claim on our Creator by giving him what is essentially a nickname?
That is my one major beef with Fr. Barron’s “Catholicism” DVDs (which is otherwise quite good, despite a few other small niggly things…we’ve bought 5 sets for our fallen away/non-Catholic relatives). He flings “Yahweh” around as though it’s perfectly acceptable & appropriate.
“The Great Yahweh” sounds way too much like “The Great Houdini” or “The Great & Powerful Oz”…