{"id":1542,"date":"2017-12-22T15:30:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T20:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/?p=1542"},"modified":"2017-12-22T15:34:20","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T20:34:20","slug":"o-oriens-the-great-antiphon-for-21-december-sung-by-the-dominican-student-brothers-in-oxford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/2017\/12\/o-oriens-the-great-antiphon-for-21-december-sung-by-the-dominican-student-brothers-in-oxford\/","title":{"rendered":"O Oriens: The Great antiphon for 21 December sung by the Dominican student brothers in Oxford."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"O Oriens\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HAUzuw1l-7U?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>From Father Z&#8217;s Blog:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Permalink to WDTPRS O Oriens: Winter Solstice and thoughts on time\" href=\"http:\/\/wdtprs.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/wdtprs-o-oriens-winter-solstice-and-thoughts-on-time-2\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">O Oriens: Winter Solstice and thoughts on time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This is the Solstice day,<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0for the Northern Hemisphere the day which provides us with the least daylight of the year.<\/p>\n<p>From this point onward in your globe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s majestic arc about your yellow star, we of the north benefit from increasing warmth and illumination.<\/p>\n<p>It is as if God in His Wisdom, provided within the framework of the cosmos object lessons by which we might come to grasp something of His good plan for our salvation.<\/p>\n<p>The main door of St. Peter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Basilica in Rome and the main altar within are exactly aligned with the rising of the sun on the Vernal Equinox. \u00c2\u00a0 On the Winter Solstice, the Egyptian obelisk relocated to the center of St. Peter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Square lines up with the obelisk and the rising Sun on the Winter Solstice. It lines up with the obelisk at Piazza del Popolo on the Summer Solstice. \u00c2\u00a0Popes such as Sixtus V placed these obelisks precisely according to a urban renovation plan. \u00c2\u00a0The obelisk at St. Peter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s serves as the\u00c2\u00a0<em>gnomon<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0of an enormous sundial.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright \" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/7\/74\/Analemma_pattern_in_the_sky.jpg\/250px-Analemma_pattern_in_the_sky.jpg\" width=\"175\" height=\"141\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The great churches of Christendom served also as accurate clocks and sometimes you see on the interior pavement an <em>analemma<\/em> where a shaft of sunlight darts to the floor. \u00c2\u00a0There is a great example of this in Rome at Santa Maria degli Angeli.<\/p>\n<p>Since the very earliest times, Christians observed the turning of the seasons and the changing direction of the sun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparent risings and settings.<\/p>\n<p>For example, through history we Christians have made much of St. Lucy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day in December (Latin for light is\u00c2\u00a0<em>lux<\/em>), and we have in the traditional calendar the Ember Days \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and this is the Advent Ember week \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which tie us in the Northern Hemisphere closer to the seasons, we celebrate St. John the Baptist in the summer at the solstice.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Remember how John said: He must increase, I must decrease.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happens to days at his feast day.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, we have entered into the heavier days of Advent, Advent II, as it were.\u00c2\u00a0 We are singing the O Antiphons at Vespers, which have their delightful Latin acrostic.\u00c2\u00a0 Today\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p><strong>LATIN:\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><em>O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol iustitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>ENGLISH:\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><em>O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scripture Reference:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Luke 1:78, 79<br \/>\nMalachi 4:2<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevant verse of\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<em>Veni, Veni Emmanuel:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer,<br \/>\nOur spirits by Thine advent here;<br \/>\nDisperse the gloomy clouds of night,<br \/>\nAnd death\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dark shadows put to flight.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We are all desperately in need of a Savior, a Redeemer who is capable of ransoming from the darkness of our sins and from the blinding and numbing wound of ignorance from which we all suffer.\u00c2\u00a0 In their terrible Fall, our First Parents inflicted grave wounds in the souls of every person who would live after them, except of course \u00e2\u20ac\u201c by an act of singular grace \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Mother of God.\u00c2\u00a0 Our wills are damaged.\u00c2\u00a0 Our intellect is clouded.\u00c2\u00a0 In Christ we have the Truth, the sure foundation of what is lasting.\u00c2\u00a0 All else, apart from Him fails and fades into dark obscurity.\u00c2\u00a0 He brings clarity and light back to our souls when we are baptized or when we return to Him through the sacrament of penance.<\/p>\n<p>At Holy Mass of the ancient Church, <strong>Christians would face \u00e2\u20ac\u0153East\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/strong>, at least symbolically, so that they could greet the Coming of the Savior, both in the consecration of the bread and wine and in the expectation of the glorious return of the King of Glory.\u00c2\u00a0 They turned to the rising sun who is Justice Itself, whose light will lay bare the truth of our every word, thought and deed in the Final Day.<\/p>\n<p>Let us turn to the LIGHT, repent our evil ways and habits, and grasp onto Christ in His Holy Church, for as we read in Scripture:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.\u00c2\u00a0 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.\u00c2\u00a0 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.\u00c2\u00a0 For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.\u00c2\u00a0 But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Father Z&#8217;s Blog: O Oriens: Winter Solstice and thoughts on time. This is the Solstice day,\u00c2\u00a0for the Northern Hemisphere the day which provides us with the least daylight of the year. From this point onward in your globe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s majestic arc about your yellow star, we of the north benefit from increasing warmth and illumination. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}