O Come, O Come, Emmanuel—the O Antiphons! by Dr. Jeff Mirus

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Dec 20, 2024 

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org.

You may have heard about the seven “O Antiphons” that close Advent and lead up to Christmas. One is assigned to each day from December 17th through December 23rd. Since all Sundays and Solemnities are celebrated beginning the evening before their calendar dates, and since Christmas is very definitely a Solemnity, there is no Advent O Antiphon on December 24th. Our in-house specialist in the liturgical year, Jennifer Gregory Miller, has been drawing attention to the “O Antiphons” ever since she developed the liturgical year resources on CatholicCulture.org.

But if you are anything like me in having only the very tiniest of liturgical brains, you may not ever really have paid much attention to them. At the same time, though, you are already very familiar with them if you know the song “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”. Each of this hymn’s seven verses is simply a longer, more poetic, and more musical way of expressing its corresponding antiphon. The only significant difference is that the very first verse of the song is actually the seventh or last of the antiphons. Thus, the title “O Come, O Come, Emmanual” is drawn from the final and climactic antiphon: “O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law: come to save us, Lord our God!” ….

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