"O come, O come, Emmanuel," is one of the oldest Christian hymns that we possess. The words are based on the ancient Latin text "
Veni, veni, Emmanuel" while the musical setting derives from an antiphon stretching back at least to the time of the 12th century. There is some evidence that the original antiphon, from which our metrical version of the song derives, may itself have evolved out of earlier Hebrew temple liturgy, which could push the origins of the work back to the very time of our Blessed Lord. The significance of this is almost staggering as we realize that Jesus Himself may well have sung this very piece, or an earlier version of it.
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Thank you for this, Robin. I've squirreled it away in my digital hidey-hole, to distribute in a bulletin insert before Advent begins next year.
In our parish, we take a sort of aggressive posture in Advent toward the hurley-burley of the commercial orgy of chestnuts, open-fires, and sleigh bells in the Mall. The four Wednesday evenings in Advent we observe a anti-commercial-Christmas service we call Compline. It features a few elements not found in the original compline service, but our observance is based on both the spirit of compline and also its forms and prayers.
The point of these services is to emphasize the quiet, contemplative dimension of Advent, to highlight in the Scripture readings the Old Testament's centuries-old prophecies of the coming Messiah, and so give our parishioners a sort of communal anchor to the long-held longings of Old Testament saints for Messiah's Advent as well as equally long-held longings of New Testament saints for Christ's return in glory.
Each of these compline services concludes with a singing of O Come, O Come Emmanuel -- just the first verse at the end of the first Advent compline, the first two verses on the second Advent compline, until we're singing four verses at the fourth Wednesday in Advent. We sing it a capella which really doubles-down on the communal nature of our adherence to the mind of God's people down through the ages, and our communal repudiation of the crassness of the world outside the sanctuary. The plaintive longing of this hymn so very well captures the spirit of Advent! And, it so well sets up our rejoicing at Midnight Mass three days after the last compline service!
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