Confident Anticipation: Antiphon for December 23
Emmanuel is very much God with us today. He comes to us graciously through His Word, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Emmanuel is very much God with us today. He comes to us graciously through His Word, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
As important as Christmas may be, it is not the birth of Christ that unites mankind in faith; it is His holy death, His resurrection and His promised return.
Christ Jesus–God enfleshed in our nature–continues to fulfill God’s promise to our fallen race.
This joy is more than a good and fuzzy feeling in our hearts; it is the certainty that has unlocked and loosened us from our sins that bound us.
Even as we ask for the Lord Christ’s deliverance of each of us from every evil of body and soul, we look ahead with joy and gladness, living in hope in Christ.
We prepare in Advent to celebrate the coming of our Lord and to worship Him, the one who saves us from our sins because we could not keep the Law.
We look beyond Christmas and wait for our Lord’s coming again to raise us to life, body and soul, and the Church prays, “O Wisdom . . . Come!”
As we await the advent of Christ, we need the same consolations for our times
The O Antiphons can continue to teach, enlighten and comfort the Church today.
If the future of the Church depends upon us, then we are sunk.
Wherever the Gospel and Sacraments are—enough to bring people to true faith in the true Jesus—there is the Church.
In the September issue, we learn from women who have gone before us in the faith.