O Come, O Come Emmanuel Amid the mass of Christmas carols that most people know, theres one Advent

hymn too: O Come, O Come Emmanuel. What people may not realize is that its not just an Advent hymn, its a late Advent hymn. This is why I asked that we not sing it for the first few Sundays in Advent. Its an ancient hymn, at least in its Latin form, going back at least to the Ninth Century A.D. and possibly as early as the Fifth or Sixth Century. (The music is much more recent and cannot be traced back before 1854.) In full form, it consists of seven verses. Each verse begins by addressing Jesus using the word O followed by one of His titles from the Old Testament title for Jesus: Wisdom, Lord, root of Jesse (Jesse was the father of King David, and the Messiah had to be a descendant of David), key of David (the key is a sign of royal authority), rising sun of justice, King of the Nations, Emmanuel (which means God with us). Each verse then continues with a petition based upon the title at its beginning. For example, the verse that refers to Jesus as the rising sun of justice asks that He come and shed light on those who sit in the shadows and darkness of death. These verses in turn are based on the O Antiphons: verses sung before and after the Magnificat (canticle of Mary) at Vespers. Each day from December 17th to December 23rd corresponds to one of the verses. The order I gave the titles above is the order in which they appear as antiphons; in Latin, taken in reverse order, the first letters of the titles spell out the phrase Ero Cras, which means Tomorrow I shall come. When O Come, O Come Emmanuel is sung as a hymn, the last verse (Emmanuel) is commonly sung first and the rest of the verses (as many as are sung) follow in their usual order. The beginning of Advent tells us that the feast of the birth of Christ is near. The appearance of the O Antiphons and of O Come, O Come Emmanuel tells us that our wait is nearly over. Come, Lord Jesus!