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.