The Advent Antiphons: O Virgo virginum

Icon of Our Lady of the Great Panagiya (Orans), (Russia, 13th c.)
[The State Tretyakov Gallery]

O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud?

Quia nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem.

Filiae Jerusalem, quid me admiramini?

Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.

O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be?

For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.

Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me?

The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.

“My soul doth magnify the Lord, 

    and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. 

For he hath regarded

    the lowliness of his handmaiden. 

For behold from henceforth

    all generations shall call me blessed. 

For he that is mighty hath magnified me,

    and holy is his Name. 

And his mercy is on them that fear him

    throughout all generations. 

He hath showed strength with his arm;

    he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 

He hath put down the mighty from their seat,

    and hath exalted the humble and meek. 

He hath filled the hungry with good things,

    and the rich he hath sent empty away. 

He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel,

    as he promised to our forefathers,

    Abraham and his seed for ever.”

Luke 1:46–55

O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be?

For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.

Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me?

The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.

[Here is a setting of O Virgo virginum by Josquin de Prez, sung by Chanticleer.]

* English translation from the Church of England’s Advent seasonal resource.

The Advent Antiphons: O Emmanuel

'O Emmanuel' Antiphon for Magnificat during Advent Vespers, Antiphonal (Dominican Archive, Krakow, 16th c.)

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,

expectratio gentium, et Salvator earum:

veni ad salvandum nos,

Domines, Deus noster.

O Emmanuel, our King and our lawgiver,

the hope of the nations and their Savior:

Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23

Jesus the Messiah, born of your mother Mary from the Holy Spirit, you are Emmanuel, God with us (Mt 1:18, 23).  As God you are always with us in the sense that “we live and move and have our being” in you—where can we go and not be with you?  (Ac 17:28; cf. Ps 139:6)  At the same time, as the Creator you are far from creation in that you are life itself and we, your creatures, have life from you, not in ourselves. And we go far from you when we wander from you in sin.  O Lord my God, you are interior intimo meo et superior summo meo (“more inward than my innermost and higher than my highest"). [1]

As God become man you are with us because you “became flesh and lived among us” (Jn 1:14).  Without changing your nature, you took on our nature when you humbled yourself (Phil 2:7).  You who were from the beginning, and are, were “made man” so that we, who were not, but are, might hear you and see you and touch you, that is, that we might have fellowship with you and with your Father and the Holy Spirit. [2]  The fellowship of a bridegroom and bride is like the fellowship we now have with you, because in your mother’s “virginal womb two things were joined, a bridegroom and a bride, the bridegroom being the Word and the bride being the flesh” and they are no longer two “but one flesh, for ‘the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us’.” [3]  In that fellowship, we "have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).

Come, Lord Jesus, that we might call you, “My husband” (Hos 2:16).  Hasten the day when your holy city will appear “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,” when the loud voice will say,

     See, the home of God is among mortals.

     He will dwell with them;

     they will be his peoples,

     and God himself will be with them; 

     he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

     Death will be no more;

     mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

     for the first things have passed away. (Rev 21:2–4)

[Here is a setting of O Emmanuel, sung by Peter Morton (tenor) and the Choir of St John's College Cambridge, conducted by David Hill.]

* English translation from the Church of England’s Advent seasonal resource.

[1] Augustine, Conf. 3.6.11.

[2] Cf. Augustine, Io. ep. tr. 1.5; 1 Jn 1:1–3.

[3] Augustine, Io. ep. tr. 1.2.

The Advent Antiphons: O Rex gentium

Detail of Mosaic of Christ Enthrone as Heavenly King, Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravena, Italy, 6th c.)

O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum,

lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:

veni, et salva hominem,

quem de limo formasti.

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

Jeremiah 10:7; Isaiah 28:16;  Ephesians 2:14

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the “King of the nations,” the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, both feared and desired by the nations.  You are feared because, on the one hand, “you are great” and it is your due to be feared (Jer 10:6–7).  On the other, because you are “the living God and the everlasting King,” you inspire terror in the nations insofar as they make “a covenant with death” and seek to conceal their transience with lies; they cannot endure the prospect of your coming to “sweep away the refuge of lies” and annul their death-dealing ((Jer 10:10; Isa 28:15, 17–18).

You are the desire of the nations because you are the “Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6).  The nations desire you insofar as there is no creature that does not desire peace, for even when we, in pride, hate your just peace and love our own peace of injustice, we “cannot help loving peace of some kind or other.” [2]  

Christ Jesus, you are “our peace” (Eph 2:14):  in your flesh you have united Jews and Gentiles, breaking down the dividing wall of hostility between us.  You came that you might create in your self “one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace” and that you “might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it” (vv. 15–16).  You came and proclaimed peace to those of us “who were far off and peace to those who were near”; for through you “both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father” (v. 17).

Come, Lord, and make manifest your peace!

[Here is a setting of O Rex gentium, sung by Peter Morton (tenor) and the Choir of St John's College Cambridge, conducted by David Hill.]

* English translation from the Church of England’s Advent seasonal resource.
[1] Augustine, civ. 19.12.

The Advent Antiphons: O Oriens

Miniature of Christ in glory from the 'Regia Carmina'
(Italy, 14th c.) [British Library, Royal 6 E IX f.4v]

O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae,

et sol justitiae:

veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris,

et umbra mortis.

O Morning Star,

splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness:

Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness 

and the shadow of death.

Malachi 4:2 

O gracious Light, 

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, 

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed, [1] 

you are “the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Rev 22:16).  You are the star that has come out of Israel (Num 24:17), the Savior “prepared for all the world to see,”

     a Light to enlighten the nations, 

          and the glory of your people Israel. (Lk 2:31–32)

Lord, we are “in a dark place”: come rise in our hearts at the dawning of the new Day (2 Pt 1:19).  We are in the shadow of death: come and enlighten us, “O Son of God, O Giver of life.”

     Thou splendor of the Father’s glory,

     who brings forth light from light,

     light of light and fount of light,

     day that lights up the day.

     Thou true Sun, shine forth

     blazing with eternal splendor,

     and pour forth into our souls

     the radiance of the Holy Spirit. [2]

[Here is a setting of O Oriens, sung by Peter Morton (tenor) and the Choir of St John's College Cambridge, conducted by David Hill.]

* English translation from the Church of England’s Advent seasonal resource.

[1] Phos hilaron, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 64.

[2] The first two stanzas of Splendor paternae gloriae by Ambrose of Milan (d. 397).  The English text is Thomas Merton's loose translation of the Latin:

     Splendor paternae gloriae,

     de luce lucem proferens,

     lux lucis et fons luminis,

     diem dies illuminans.

     Verusque sol, illabere

     micans nitore perpeti,

     iubarque Sancti Spiritus

     infunde nostris sensibus.

The hymn is most commonly known in English as, “O splendor of God’s glory bright,” after Robert Bridges’ translation.

The Advent Antiphons: O Clavis David

Detail of O Clavis David antiphon for the Magnificat during Advent Vespers,
"The Poissy Antiphonal", f31r (France, 14th c.)

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel,

qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperuit:

veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,

sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Key of David and scepter of the House of Israel;

you open and no one can shut;

you shut and no one can open:

Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Isaiah 22:22; 42:7; Revelation 3:7–13

Lord Jesus Christ, you are “the Holy One, the True One,” “the first and the last, and the living one” who has “the keys of Death and of Hades” (Rev 3:7; 1:17–18).

     When you became man to set us free 

     you did not shun the Virgin's womb. 

     You overcame the sting of death 

     and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. [1]

You have “the key of David” (Rev 3:7; cf. Isa 22:22); it is yours to grant access to the kingdom of your Father, yours to say either, “Come,” or, “Depart” (cf. Mt 25:34, 41).  You set before your faithful disciples “an open door, which no one is able to shut” (Rev 3:7, 8).  To those who persevere in your way, you open the narrow gate that leads to life (cf. Mt 7:14).  You promise entrance to the new Jerusalem to those who, possessing “but little power” in themselves, are enabled by your gift to patiently endure great suffering (Rev 3:8, 10).

Lord, grant that we—who have “but little power”—might heed your words, “I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have” (Rev 3:11).

[Here is a setting of O Clavis David, sung by Peter Morton (tenor) and the Choir of St John's College Cambridge, conducted by David Hill.]

* English translation from the Church of England’s Advent seasonal resource.
[1] From the Te Deum, cf. The Book of Common Prayer, p. 96.

The Advent Antiphons: O Radix Jesse

Detail of a miniature of the Tree of Jesse,
Beginning of the Gospel of Matthew
(France, 13th c.) [British Library]

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,

super quem continebunt reges os suum,

quem gentes deprecabuntur:

veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

Isaiah 11:10; 45:14; 52:15; Romans 15:12

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the shoot from the stock of Jesse (Isa 11:1), the “Rose e’er blooming” who has sprung from a “tender stem” in the half spent night. [1]  You showed “God’s love aright,”when you came in great humility as “a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God” (Rom 15:8).  Filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you were made a witness to the peoples of the “steadfast, sure love” of God, confirming God’s promises to Israel and revealing his mercy to the Gentiles (cf. Isa 11:2–3; 55:3–4; Rom 15:8–9).  When you went to your death and exaltation, you said, “Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:31–32).  Lifted up on the cross, you astonished the powers by disarming and humiliating them in it (Col 2:15).  You stand as a sign of the justice of God among the nations.

But the nations do not yet acknowledge your sovereignty, Lord Christ.  The night is far gone and the day of your manifestation is near, but the world remains marked by hurt and destruction   (Rom 13:12, cf. Isa 11:9).  Gratifying the libido dominandi (lust for power), “the powerful feed upon the powerless.” [2]  They—the “wolves” and “leopards,” “lions” and “bears”—“prowl on every side” looking to devour the poor and defenseless “lambs” and “kids,” who themselves exalt what is vile (Isa 11:6–7; Ps 12:8).  

Lord, come quickly and deliver us.  Do not delay in coming to judge the world with righteousness and equity (cf. Isa 11:3–5).  Hasten the coming of your kingdom of justice and peace.  Come quickly and bring the day when

          The wolf shall live with the lamb,

             the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

          the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

             and a little child shall lead them. 

          The cow and the bear shall graze,

             their young shall lie down together;

             and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 

          The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

             and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 

          They will not hurt or destroy

             on all my holy mountain;

          for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

             as the waters cover the sea. (Isa 11:6–9)

[Here is a setting of O Radix Jesse, sung by Peter Morton (tenor) and the Choir of St John's College Cambridge, conducted by David Hill.]

* English translation from the Church of England’s Advent seasonal resource.

[1] Cf. “Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming.”

[2] Francis I, Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, 53.

The Advent Antiphons: O Adonai

Scenes from life of Moses, Ingeborg Psalter (Denmark, 13th c.)

O Adonai, et dux domus Israel,

qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,

et ei in Sina legem dedisti:

veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Exodus 3:2; 24:12

“O LORD my God you are very great” (Ps 104:1).  Dwelling “in unapproachable light,” you make “flame and fire your ministers,” as when your messenger appeared to Moses “in a flame of fire out of a bush” (1 Tim 6:16, Ps 104:4; Ex 3:2).  When you appeared in the blazing unburnt bush, revealing yourself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, Moses was afraid to look at you (cf. Ex 3:6).  When you gave him the law on Sinai, “in cloud and majesty and awe,” your appearance was “like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel” (Ex 24:17).  You are very great, O LORD: “in your light we see light” (Ps 36:9).

Fire and light are apt figures for you, O Lord, for your life blazes out in uncontainable freedom.  Your unsayable, mysterious Name gives us no handle on you.  “I AM WHO I AM,” you say, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Ex 3:14; 33:19).  In your freedom, you show that your “unfamiliar name” is love. [1]

In love, O LORD, you observed the misery of your people in Egypt, and came to your people to set them free from their oppressors.  You "brought Israel out with silver and gold" because you remembered your covenant to Abraham; you brought your people out with joy and your chosen ones with singing, giving them the lands of the nations that they might keep your statutes and observe your righteous laws (Ps. 105:37, 42–45).  

O LORD, your steadfast love endures forever (cf. Ps 136).  Come again and deliver your poor ones who suffer injustice.  Give us the grace to “be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid.” [2]  Come and redeem your people.  “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us.” [3]

[Here is a setting of O Adonai, sung by Peter Morton (tenor) and the Choir of St John's College Cambridge, conducted by David Hill.]

* English translation from the Church of England’s Advent seasonal resource.
[1] Cf. T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,” IV.

[2] Francis I, Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, 187. 

[3] Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent, The Book of Common Prayer.

The Advent Antiphons: O Sapientia

Detail of drawing of Temple of Wisdom,
with the Virgin, Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit
(Germany, 12th c.) [British Library]

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodisti,

attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter,

suaviter disponensque omnia:

veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

O Wisdom, coming 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.

Ecclesiasticus 24:3; Wisdom 8:1

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, you are “the wisdom and power of God” (1 Cor 1:24), because you are “wisdom from wisdom” just as you are light from light and God from God, one wisdom, one light, one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. [1]  

You are the wisdom whom the Father eternally utters as his Word.  Through you the worlds were created, “all things in heaven and on earth…, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through” you and for you (Col 1:16).  You are the Word in whom “all things hold together” (Col 1:16, 17), the wisdom of whom it is written,

     She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other,

     and she orders all things well. (Wis 8:1) 

By you the Father has spoken to us in these last days (Heb 1:2), when you, the Word, “became flesh and lived among us” (Jn 1:14).  You “declare the Father as he is, because you are yourself just like that, being exactly what the Father is insofar as you are wisdom…” [2]  Because you are the exact “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), whoever has seen you has seen the Father (Jn 14:9).

You, Christ, “became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30).  You become wisdom for us, our wisdom, when we turn to you and you enlighten us; you are made wisdom in the sense that “we turn to you in time...in order to abide with you for ever.” [3]  You became for us the way to the Father.  When we imitate you by living wisely, you refashion us to your likeness; when we walk in you, we move toward you, who are ever with the Father and the Holy Spirit. [4]

Come, teach us the way of wisdom in the “foolishness” of your cross, “for God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25).

[Here is a setting of O Sapientia, sung by Peter Morton (tenor) and the Choir of St John's College Cambridge, conducted by David Hill.]

* English translation from the Church of England’s Advent seasonal resource, one of an abundance of supplementary seasonal material in Common Worship.

[1] Cf. Augustine, Trin. 7.1.2.

[2] Augustine, Trin. 7.3.4, emphasis added and pronouns changed to second person.  ET:  Augustine, The Trinity. The Works of Saint Augustine. Trans. Edmund Hill (New City Press, 1991).

[3] Ibid., pronouns changed to second person.

[4] Cf. Augustine, Trin. 7.3.5.

The Advent Antiphons

Detail of the Magnificat Antiphons
for Vespers in the 4th week of Advent,
“The Poissy Antiphonal”, f. 30r (France, 1335–45)
[State Library of Victoria]

When I was growing up, most years during the weeks before Christmas my parents would somehow get my siblings and me to stay after dinner at the table for devotions around the Advent wreath.  About the only thing I remember about these times is that we would sing, “O come, O come, Emmanuel."  I've always liked this hymn, with its plaintive tune and hopeful words—words which come from a set of ancient Latin prayers known as the "O Antiphons."

Since at least the eighth century, western Christians following Roman use have sung the O Antiphons before and after the Magnificat at Vespers on the seven days preceding Christmas Eve (December 17–23).  These antiphons, or refrains, all beginning “O…”, invoke the Messiah with titles and images derived primarily from the Old Testament.  Through the O Antiphons, the church calls to her Savior, “Veni, Come!”  In reverse order, the initials of each invocation (Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia) form an acrostic that spells out the Latin phrase, ero cras, in which the church hears the response of Christ, “I shall be [with you] tomorrow."

The medieval rite of Salisbury Cathedral (also known as “Sarum Use”), which was widely followed in the English church before the Reformation, began the O Antiphons on December 16, providing an additional antiphon (O Virgo virginum, “O Virgin of Virgins) for Christmas Eve.  The Calendar of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer possibly reflects this usage in designating December 16 as O Sapientia (O Wisdom).

As a devotion for the last days of Advent (with partial inspiration from here), I have prepared a series of reflections—with visual and musical pairings—on each antiphon following the old English use.

                              16 December — O Sapientia

                              17 December — O Adonai

                              18 December — O Radix Jesse

                              19 December — O Clavis David

                              20 December — O Oriens

                              21 December — O Rex gentium

                              22 December — O Emmanuel

                              23 December — O Virgo virginum

Sources:

“O-Antiphons”, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, eds. F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone (2^nd ed; Oxford, 1983).

M. Hugo, "O Antiphons," New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10 (2nd ed; Gale, 2003).

On an Advent Collect

Missal, with the text for Advent (Durham, England, 14th c.)

"Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer appoints the collect for the First Sunday of Advent to be repeated every day in Advent until Christmas Eve.  The prayer thus sets the tone for the whole season—indeed, for the whole liturgical year—and invites reflection.

“Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light”

The prayer opens with language taken from Romans 13:12, part of the Epistle lesson (Rom 13:11–14) associated since at least the medieval period with the first Sunday of Advent and retained in the first year of the three-year cycle of the current Revised Common Lectionary.  (The lesson appears, for example, in the 14^th-century English missal shown in the image above.)  The English reformers expanded the lesson to begin with verse 8: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”  

The expanded lection helps us see that to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light is nothing more nor less than to love.  For St. Paul connects the love command (vv. 8–10) to the section about knowing the time (vv. 11–14) with a simple kai touto, “and this.”  Thus, St. Paul effectively says in verse 11 that we are to love, knowing that it is time to walk in the light of the coming day of salvation.  Because the night is far spent, because the reign of sin and death is near its end, we are to put on the armor (hopla, lit., “weapons”) of light (v. 12).  We are to no longer give our selves as “instruments of unrighteousness” (hopla adikias), but to present our bodies to God as “instruments of righteousness” (hopla dikaisoynes) (6:13), as “ a living sacrifice” (12:1).  In short, we are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (13:14), to immerse ourselves in the life of the risen Lord.  United with our Lord in a death like his in baptism, we are to “walk in newness of life,” living to God, considering ourselves “alive to God in Christ Jesus” (cf. Rom 6:4–11).  Knowing the time, we are to “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.” (Eph 5:2).

“Now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility”

Now is when we are to love one another.  Like St. Paul, the collect assumes that we know the time, “that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom 13:11–12a, KJV).  Now is the time of the shadows before the coming dawn, a time when the continuing effects of sin and death require from us sober watchfulness and mutual encouragement if we are to not be conformed to this devastated world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds (12:2).

Advent Prayers in "The Leofric Missal" (England, 9th–11th c.)

Now we are to let our minds be conformed to of Christ Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6–8).

“That in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal”*

The prayer concludes by directing our attention to the second advent of our Lord, to the day when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10–11).  In light of his coming, “what sort of people ought [we] to be in living lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?” (2 Pt 3:12)  We are called to be a people whose lives of love point to the coming renewal of creation, “where righteousness is at home” (2 Pt 3:13).  We are called to be a people whose obedience to the Lord Jesus proclaims his sovereignty in a world that does not yet acknowledge Christ as King.

* The collect’s aspiration clause corresponds closely to a post-communion prayer in the Gelasian Sacramentaries of the 8^th century, a family of western service books from which, together with the Gregorian Sacramentaries, the Roman Missal derives.  (An early example of the prayer is found in the “Leofric Missal,” brought to England in the 10^th or 11^th century.  See the last prayer, beginning Preces populi tui, in the righthand image above.)  That prayer translates roughly as “...that they may rejoice at the advent of your Only-begotten according to the flesh, may at the second advent, when he shall come in his majesty, receive the reward of eternal life” (Trans. Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book [HarperOne, 1995], p. 165).