Today the Church begins the use of the “O Antiphons” for the Canticle of Mary at Vespers. In the English-speaking world we are acquainted with them by the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Today Jesus is invoked as “The Wisdom of God”
The Gospel acclamation reads:
O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge!
The Magnificat antiphons (from Benedictine Daily Prayer) reads:
O Wisdom, You came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and reaching from the beginning to the end, You ordered all things mightily and sweetly. Come, and teach us the way of prudence.
The verse in the Advent hymn reads:
O Come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orders all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show
And teach us in her ways to go.
How much our world needs this wisdom of God, with so many things disordered. We need the sweetness of a God who comes among us as a poor human child.
This morning I awoke with a song that I had heard in my dream: “You, O Lord, are wonderful, all the days of my life.”
We need to remember the wonderful works of God – and the Wisdom that we are offered to work with God to help restore the sweetness of creation.
This nativity scene from an exhibition in the cathedral of Ravenna makes me think of the Wisdom of our God, revealed in a tiny Babe.
O Come, O Wisdom of God
walk the way 