Much nativity stained glass has a gratuitously blond Christ child… Get real, stained glass makers! This photo by Kencf0618 on Flickr.
Welcome to the last day of my kinda quixotic immunocompromised-Advent series on handwashing to the O Antiphons. The last O Antiphon corresponds to the first verse of “O Come O Come Emmanuel” (yes, the last shall be first!):
O come, o come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear. [Protestants rinse]
Rejoice! Rejoice! [plainsong users rinse]
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
But it doesn’t correspond all that closely. According to a random Catholic website I saw, the original was
O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people: Come and set us free, Lord our God. {Or, in Latin, O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, expectratio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos, Domines, Deus noster.]
Since the hymn writer shunted “desire of nations” to another verse, he put in a whole bit about Israel and exile, which is an essential part of the Bible, but I miss the “king” part and the “savior of all people” part.
Have a blessed Christmas, everyone!
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Elizabeth-
Finally made it over here–I looked sometime after I visited you and I think you didn’t have anything up then, but now I see you have lots. Anyway, I’m so relieved you were able to travel home for Christmas and that your counts are slowly making their way up. The blog is terrific and inspiring, too (but not brave and noble — no way did I say that). Much love, Banu