The Clever Puzzle Hidden in O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Ah! Those 8^th century monks—clever lads they.    Twelve hundred years ago when they assembled “O come, O come Emmanuel”--one of the most popular hymns in 21st-century America--they were proclaiming the approaching celebration of the Birth of Jesus.  Just as children (in us all) become more excited as Christmas approaches, so did the monks.   Each year beginning on December 17^th, they sang a different short introduction to their nightly singing of Mary’s Song.   Each one of these introductions ended with a very short prayer, asking the lord to “come quickly”   (“Veni” in their Latin). Each one of the introductions began with a name for Jesus preceded by “O”.    O Wisdom.  O Lord.  O Root of Jesse.   O Key of David. O Morning Star.  O King of the Nations. O Emmanuel.

Because each name for Jesus was preceded by the “O” they are called the “Great O Antiphons” (“anti-phon” meaning the sound that comes before something).  

And here is the puzzle, but I will have to list the Latin names of Jesus the monks used and show you which evenings before Christmas they were each sung just before they sang Mary’s Song, the Magnificat.

O Sapientia (O Wisdom)   sung December 17

O Adonai  (O Lord)   sung December 18

O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse) sung December 19

O Clavis David (O Key of David) sung December 20

O Oriens (O Morning Star) sung December 21

O Rex gentium (O King of the nations) sung December 22

O Emmanuel (O Emmanuel, God with us)  sung December 23

 The Vigil of the Birth of the Lord    December 24

The Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord  December 25

And now finding the Puzzle and solving the Puzzle.   The first letter of the names the monks used for Jesus (I have put them in bold in the above list) form an acrostic which, when read in inverse order from the December 23 backwards to December 17 they read    E.R.O.   C.R.A.S. which is Latin for “I shall be present tomorrow.”  That is, if one antiphon or verse is sung each day, the full text of the acrostic is revealed only on the day before Christmas Eve.  

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

JBS