O-Antiphons Introduction

A Reading from the Book of Genesis and an Introduction to the “O Antiphons.”

In the day that the Lord God made the earth, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb had yet sprung up – a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground.  And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east.  Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.

O Lord God, when you asked me, through our Abbess, to present the “O Antiphons” for the imminent approach of Christmas, I said, “Yes” to you; adding, “Now, you have to help me.”  You answered, “Let us take a walk in the evening breeze...”  And, we came upon a golden, filigreed gate and on it a sign:  “A Garden in Eden:  Things are not always what they appear to be.”  Then you said, “Therein is your help and your imaginative expression.  Enter and take your Sisters with you.”  A mossy-carpeted path lays ahead of us.  It looks like it is lined by prominent trees in a circular array.  “Oh, circular, like an O,” I muse…