The ancient vesperal hymn of Advent, Creator Almae Siderum, tells us of the gigantic struggle between the forces of light and darkness, with the Mother of God as the channel of our salvation:
Bright Builder of the heavenly poles.
Eternal light of faithful souls,
Jesus, Redeemer of mankind,
Our humble prayers vouchsafe to mind:
Who, lest the fraud of hell’s black king,
Should all men to destruction bring,
Didst, by an act of generous love,
The fainting world’s physician prove.
Thou, that thou mightst our ransom pay,
And wash the stains of sin away,
Didst from a Virgin’s womb proceed,
And on the Cross a Victim bleed.
Another significant addition to the last days of Advent is the “O Antiphons.” From December 17 to 23, the antiphons to Magnificat carry various divine titles for the Child to be born: O Wisdom, O Adonai [Hebrew for Lord], O root of Jesse, O key of David, O Orient, O King, O Emmanuel. In their Latin original, we have the following words: Sapientia, Adonai, Radix, Clavis, Oriens, Rex, Emmanuel.
An interesting feature of these titles is that if we invert the initial letters we get “Ero cras—I shall be here tomorrow!” which indeed is the case as the seven antiphons are completed on December 23, about 24 hours away from Midnight Mass. It is as if the Church is getting anxious to finally see the Invisible God become visible to human eyes.
Such should be our eagerness as we redouble our steps towards the holy Manger at Bethlehem, filled with awe and wonder
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