Eight days before the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, we encounter texts in the liturgy that the church has been chanting since the middle of the first millennium. During Vespers, as antiphons to the Magnificat, and newly also at the Holy Mass as a verse before the Gospel, words full of anticipation for the Savior are heard. In Latin, they begin with the exclamation "O" – hence they are called the "O Antiphons".
O Wisdom, you have come forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: come and teach us the way of prudence.
O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
(Antiphon before the Gospel; antiphon to the canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary – December 17)
