The second antiphon for the Fourth Sunday in Advent follows:
Ecce veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus: et replebitur gloria domus Domini, alleluia.
Lo! the Desired of all nations will come: and the house of
the Lord shall be filled with glory, alleluia.
The antiphon is based on Haggai 2:8, with the speaker changed from
God to the monks:
"And I will move all nations: AND THE DESIRED OF ALL NATIONS
SHALL COME: and I will fill this house with glory: saith the Lord of hosts".
There is an interesting discussion of the translation on the
blog of an American Benedictine who notes that the key word here is desideratus
and that the Vulgate follows more closely the Hebrew than the Septuagint Greek
in rendering the Hebrew chemddah, (delight, desire).
“Normally, this is understood as a prophecy of 'precious
things' or 'treasure' pouring into the temple, and this is corroborated in this
same verse of Haggai by references to silver and gold, which are obviously
things desired and delightful for those who own them.
In the context of the Advent liturgy, with its emphasis on
the world's longing to be redeemed from the slavery of sin and death, and the
theme of the opening of salvation to the Gentiles, this antiphon is now
referring to Jesus Christ as the One longed-for by all nations.”
Vespers began with Father Andrew chanting 'Deus in adjutorium
meum intende' (O God come to my aid) and everyone answers 'Domine, ad adjuvandum
me festina'. (O Lord, make haste to help me). This is based on Psalm 70:2 and
was originally introduced at the start of prayer in the west by John Cassian in the fourth
century. Saint Benedict had used Cassian’s prayer at the start of most offices
and for tasks such as weekly service in the kitchen.
See Kevin Peterson's blogpost at Compline Underground
We sang Advent Vespers in St Mary's church in Stirling. Father Andrew Kingham officiated
We started the Processional Hymn in the doorway from the
vestry so it sounded distant and had little reverberation from the
surroundings.
This was quite effective in communicating that we were
coming from a distance.
Then we began to enter the nave and by the end of verse 2 the
reverberations sounded better, as you can hear.
By verse three the building was making us sound like chant
experts.
Those Pugin boys really knew how to build churches with great acoustics for Chant.
We processed to the back of the church by way of the north
aisle, then up towards the Altar along the centre aisle. Our voices hardly
changed until we walked past the hand-held phone microphone at verse seven,
when you can hear our individual voices as we rustled by.
We sang the final Gaude in front of the Altar, before
ascending to our places, bowing first to the Tabernacle and then to each other,
after we had climbed the Sanctuary stairs in twos.
Veni, Veni, Emmanuel
The hymn is the Latin original of Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel and
lists the seven 'O Antiphons’ used in the days before Christmas. The congregational
Booklet had both the Latin text and the translation of the hymn and described
the ancient origin of the O Antiphons. These dated from the earliest centuries
of the Catholic Faith.
The congregational Booklet also explained that the first
letter of each Antiphon spelled the Latin for 'Tomorrow I will come' (Ero Cras).
Clever, these long-ago Benedictines who arranged the verses
so.
December 23: O Emmanuel
(O God who is with us)
December 22: O Rex
Gentium (O King of the nations)
December 21: O Oriens
(O Dayspring)
December 20: O Clavis
David (O Key of David)
December
19: O Radix Jesse
(O Root of Jesse)
December
18: O Adonai (O
Lord)
December
17: O Sapientia (O
Wisdom)
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, And order all things, far and nigh;
To us the path of knowledge show, And cause us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel; Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Adonai, Lord of might; Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law, In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice ! Rejoice ! Emmanuel; Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free, Thine own from Satan's
tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save, And give them victory
o'er the grave.
Rejoice ! Rejoice ! Emmanuel; Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David come; And open wide our heav'nly home ;
Make safe the way that leads on high, And close the path to misery.
Rejoice ! Rejoice ! Emmanuel; Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy
drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark
shadows put to flight.
Rejoice ! Rejoice ! Emmanuel; Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Desire of nations, bind, All peoples in one heart
and mind;
Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease; Fill the whole world
with heaven’s peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel; Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel; Shall come to thee, O Israel.