Suffering With Joy

O Adonai

December 18, 2009

O Adonai, et dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, eet ei in Sina legem dedisti, veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the flaming bush, and gavest him the law on Sinai; come and redeem us by thy outstretched arm.

Isaiash11:4-5: But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity the meek of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins.

Isaiah 33:22: For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: He will save us.

This day we call God “Adonai”, the Sacred Lord, Master of all, Majesty. The Hebrews used this word in the place of the holy and unutterable name which they were forbidden to pronounce, even to today.  The Church recalls the giving of the law to Moses, the law that we are born with written on our hearts, and the power of God to deliver us from slavery to Satan.

God is not coming this time in power and glory with trumpets and thunder. The most high God is about to appear as a helpless baby in the still of the night.  His outstretched arm on the humiliation of the Cross is our redemption.  He comes in the power of humbleness to save us from our pride.

Tags: Advent, O Antiphons