“O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.”
“O Morning Star, splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness: come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”
One of the things I loved during Advent was the “O Antiphons”, the Magnificat antiphons used at Vespers on the last seven days of Advent. The antiphon “O Morning Star” is really the one for evening of December 21, but it’s just so lovely – and it works just as much for the morning. It’s also been translated as “O Dayspring”. Both of these – “Dayspring” and “Morning Star” – point to the coming of light into darkness.
I love to cruise. This past November Norio and I took a Trans-Atlantic trip from England to Puerto Rico. In the middle of the trip there are six ‘sea days’ as we make the crossing. I got up one of those mornings, at 5 am, and went out on the balcony to watch the sunrise and take pictures. The whole of it took 35 minutes, but there is the one moment when the sun seems to spring above the horizon and the world is flooded with light. It’s awe-inspiring. The other thing is how small we are; the Atlantic is so incredibly vast, and even on a ship which carries 4000 people, we are a blip on the surface. Yet into our smallness comes the light of the new day, the sun – a star, the springing-day – reminding us that even in our smallness we too are made of star stuff.
Come, O Morning Star, into our hearts on this new day. Open us to your light; enlighten us.
