O WISDOM, O SAPIENTIA
THE GREAT O ANTIPHONS OF
ADVENT
ulian of Norwich opens her Westminster Cathedral Manuscript
text of the Showing of Love with a Great O, an
Omega, rather than an Alpha, invoking the Great O Antiphon
of Advent, 'O Sapientia', said by Mary worshiping her
not-yet-born Child, tenting within her. The passage is from
the Book of Wisdom, but echoes also Dante's Bernard's use of
this paradox, when worshiping Mary, worshiping Christ, to be
translated by Chaucer for his Second Nun in the Canterbury
Tales.
Ure gracious & goode/ lorde god shewed me in/
party the wisdom & the trewthe/ of the soule of oure
blessed lady/ saynt mary. Where in I under/stood the
reuerent beholdynge/ that she beheld her god that is/ her
maker. maruelyng with/ grete reuerence that he wolde/ be
borne of her that was a/ simple creature of his makyng.
n the
English Sarum Use there are eight Great O Antiphons, ending
with an evocation of Calvary, 'O Daughters of Jerusalem'; in
Continental Roman Use, there are only seven. Hence the date is
pushed back one earlier in England, for 'O Sapientia', etc.
The chanted music for these passages, sung by the full choir,
is most beautiful. If any reader can give us a digital
recording of 'O Sapientia' for this web essay we should be
most grateful. It is music Julian likely would have sung had
she been at Benedictine Carrow Priory.
16 December
Wisdom, which camest out of
the mouth of the most High, and reachest from one end to
another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and
teach us the way of prudence.
17 December
For the music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ngcQDQfhlA&index=1&list=PLM_BPPe3btzjYhja2ufL8ffepQLsk3KQ8
aSapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi
prodisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviter
disponensque omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
aAdonai
and
Leader of the house of Israel, who appearedst in the Bush of
Moses in a flame of fire, and gavest him the law in Sinai:
Come and deliver us with an outstretched arm.
Root of Jesse, which standest
for an ensign of the people, at whom kings shall shut their
mouths, to whom the Gentiles shall seek: Come and deliver
us, and tarry not.
19 December
aRadix Jesse, qui stas in signum
populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes
deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
Key of David, and Sceptre of
the house of Israel; that openest, and no man shuttests, and
shuttest, and no man openeth: come and bring the prisoner
out of the prison house, and him that sittest in darkness,
and the shadow of death.
20 December
aClavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel:
qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: venit,
et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris et
umbra mortis.
Day-Spring, Brightness of
Light, everlasting and sun of Righteousness: Come and
enlighten him that sitteth in darkness, and the shadow of
death.
21 December
aOriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol
justitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra
mortis.
aKing
of
the Nations, and their Desire; the Cornerstone, who makest
both one: Come and save mankind, whom thou formedst of clay.
22 December
aRex gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva
hominem, quem de limo formasti.
Emmanuel, our King and
Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations, and their Salvation:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.
23 December
aEmmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,
exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum
nos Domine Deus noster.
Virgin of Virgins, how shall
this be? for neither before thee was any like thee, nor
shall there be after: Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye
at me? the thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.
Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet
istud? Quia nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem.
Filiae Ierusalem, quid me
admiramini? Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.
Antiphons.
In Memory of Andrew Dickson
Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons . . . It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Vaclav Havel
Malcolm Guite 2006/7
O Wisdom, coming
forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.
O Sapientia
I cannot think unless I have been
thought
Nor can I speak unless I have been
spoken
I cannot teach except as I am taught
Or break the bread except as I am
broken.
O Mind behind the mind through which I
seek,
O Light within the light by which I see,
O Word beneath the words with which I
speak
O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me
O sounding Song whose depth is sounding
me
O Memory of time, reminding me
My Ground of Being, always grounding me
My Maker’s Bounding Line, defining me
Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you
bring
Come to me now, disguised as everything.
O
Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi
apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
O
Adonai, and leader of the House of
Israel,
who appeared to Moses in the fire of
the burning bush
and gave him the law on Sinai:
Come and redeem us with an
outstretched arm
O
Adonai
Unsayable, you chose
to speak one tongue
Unseeable, you gave
yourself away,
The Adonai, the
Tetragramaton
Grew by a wayside in
the light of day.
O you who dared to be
a tribal God,
o own a language,
people and a place,
Who chose to be
exploited and
betrayed,
If so you might be met
with face to face,
Come to us here, who
would not find you
there,
Who chose to know the
skin and not the pith,
Who heard no more than
thunder in the air,
Who marked the mere
events and not the
myth.
Touch the bare
branches of our
unbelief
And blaze again like
fire in every leaf.
O
Radix Jesse, qui
stas in signum
populorum,
super quem
continebunt reges
os suum,
quem Gentes
deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum
nos, jam noli
tardare.
O
Root of Jesse,
stand as a sign
among the peoples;
before you kings
will shut their
mouths,
to you the nations
will make their
prayer:
Come and deliver
us,
and delay no
longer
O
Radix
All of us sprung from
one deep-hidden seed,
Rose from a root
invisible to all.
We knew the virtues once
of every weed,
But, severed from the
roots of ritual,
We surf the surface of a
wide-screen world
And find no virtue in
the virtual.
We shrivel on the edges
of a wood
Whose heart we once
inhabited in love,
Now we have need of you,
forgotten Root
The stock and stem of
every living thing
Whom once we worshiped
in the sacred grove,
For now is winter, now
is withering
Unless we let you root
us deep within,
Under the ground of
being, graft us in.
O
Key of David
and sceptre of
the House of
Israel
you open and
no one can
shut;
you shut and
no one can
open:
Come and lead
the prisoners
from the
prison house,
those who
dwell in
darkness and
the shadow of
death
O
Clavis
Even in the darkness
where I sit
And huddle in the midst
of misery
I can remember freedom,
but forget
That every lock must
answer to a key
That each dark clasp,
sharp and intricate,
Must find a
counter-clasp to meet
its guard.
Particular, exact and
intimate,
The clutch and catch
that meshes with its
ward.
I cry out for the key I
threw away
That turned and over
turned with certain
touch
And with the lovely
lifting of a latch
Opened my darkness to
the light of day.
O come again, come
quickly, set me free
splendor
lucis
aeternae,
veni, et
illumina
sedentes
in tenebris,
et umbra
mortis
Splendour
of light
eternal and
sun of
righteousness:
Come and
enlighten
those who
dwell in
darkness and
the shadow of
death.
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”
O
Rex Gentium,
et desideratus
earum,
lapisque
angularis, qui
facis utraque
unum:
veni, et salva
hominem,
O
King of the
nations, and
their desire,
the
cornerstone
making both
one:
Come and save
the human
race,
which you
fashioned from
clay
O
Rex Gentium
O King of our
desire whom we
despise,
King of the
nations never
on the throne,
Unfound
foundation,
cast-off
cornerstone,
Rejected
joiner, making
many one,
You have no
form or beauty
for our eyes,
A King who
comes to give
away his
crown,
A King within
our rags of
flesh and
bone.
We pierce the
flesh that
pierces our
disguise,
For we
ourselves are
found in you
alone.
Come to us now
and find in us
your throne,
O King within
the child
within the
clay,
O hidden King
who shapes us
in the play
Of all
creation.
Shape us for
the day
Your coming
Kingdom comes
into its own.
Rex
et
legifer
noster,
exspectatio
Gentium, et
Salvator
earum:
veni ad
salvandum nos,
Domine, Deus
noster
O
Emmanuel, our
King and
Lawgiver,
the Desire of
all nations,
and their
Salvation:
Come and save
us, O Lord our
God.
Saint Bride and Her Book: Birgitta of Sweden's Revelations Translated from Latin and Middle English with Introduction, Notes and Interpretative Essay. Focus Library of Medieval Women. Series Editor, Jane Chance. xv + 164 pp. Revised, republished, Boydell and Brewer, 1997. Republished, Boydell and Brewer, 2000. ISBN 0-941051-18-8
To see an example of a page inside
with parallel text in Middle English and Modern English,
variants and explanatory notes, click here. Index to this book at http://www.umilta.net/julsismelindex.html
Julian of
Norwich. Showing of Love: Extant Texts and Translation. Edited.
Sister Anna Maria Reynolds, C.P. and Julia Bolton
Holloway. Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo (Click
on British flag, enter 'Julian of Norwich' in search
box), 2001. Biblioteche e
Archivi 8. XIV + 848 pp. ISBN 88-8450-095-8.
To see inside this book, where God's words are
in red, Julian's in black, her
editor's in grey, click here.
Julian of
Norwich. Showing of Love. Translated, Julia Bolton
Holloway. Collegeville: Liturgical Press;
London; Darton, Longman and Todd, 2003. Amazon
ISBN 0-8146-5169-0/ ISBN 023252503X. xxxiv + 133 pp.
Index.
'Colections'
by an English Nun in Exile: Bibliothèque Mazarine 1202.
Ed. Julia Bolton Holloway, Hermit of the Holy Family. Analecta
Cartusiana 119:26. Eds. James Hogg, Alain Girard, Daniel Le
Blévec. Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Universität Salzburg, 2006.
Anchoress and Cardinal: Julian
of Norwich and Adam Easton OSB. Analecta Cartusiana 35:20
Spiritualität
Heute und Gestern. Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und
Amerikanistik Universität Salzburg, 2008. ISBN
978-3-902649-01-0. ix + 399 pp. Index. Plates.
Teresa Morris. Julian of Norwich: A
Comprehensive Bibliography and Handbook.
Preface, Julia Bolton Holloway. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen
Press, 2010. x + 310 pp. ISBN-13:
978-0-7734-3678-7; ISBN-10: 0-7734-3678-2. Maps. Index.
Fr Brendan
Pelphrey. Lo, How I Love Thee: Divine Love in
Julian of Norwich. Ed. Julia Bolton Holloway. Amazon,
2013. ISBN 978-1470198299
Julian among
the Books: Julian of Norwich's Theological Library.
Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2016. xxi + 328 pp. VII Plates,
59 Figures. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8894-X, ISBN (13)
978-1-4438-8894-3.
Mary's Dowry; An Anthology of
Pilgrim and Contemplative Writings/ La Dote di
Maria:Antologie di
Testi di Pellegrine e Contemplativi.
Traduzione di Gabriella Del Lungo
Camiciotto. Testo a fronte, inglese/italiano.
Analecta Cartusiana 35:21 Spiritualität Heute und
Gestern. Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und
Amerikanistik Universität Salzburg, 2017. ISBN
978-3-903185-07-4. ix + 484 pp.
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