December 21 O ORIENS (O Eastern Dawn)
Here’s the fifth of the seven ancient, ever new “O Antiphons“ (also called the "Greater Antiphons” or “Major Antiphons”), prayers that come from the Breviary’s Vespers (evening prayers, that is) during the Octave before Christmas Eve, a time which is called the “Golden Nights.”
Translation from the latin:
O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
A rendering by Thom Turner:
O Morning Star, bright light, eternal dawn, sun of justice, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death; be our guide on the path of righteousness. Come now and show us the light that brings eternal joy.
SCRIPTURE
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown” (Isaiah 9:1).
SONNET | O ORIENS Paradiso XXX; 61
First light and then first lines along the east To touch and brush a sheen of light on water As though behind the sky itself they traced The shift and shimmer of another river Flowing unbidden from its hidden source; The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera. Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice Are bathing in it now, away upstream… So every trace of light begins a grace In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam Is somehow a beginning and a calling; “Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream For you will see the Dayspring at your waking, Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking”
Sonnet | Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons (Canterbury Press, 2012) Image: Susan Tilit (21st c.) The Son of Righteousness Shall Rise