"Ero Cras!"

[ermingarden]

The antiphons used at Vespers for the last seven days of Advent are known as the "O Antiphons" and date from at least the eighth century, and possibly farther back. Each begins with a different title for the Messiah, largely drawn from Isaiah:

O Sapientia – O Wisdom (see Is. 11:2-3)
O Adonai (see Is. 33:22)
O radix Jesse – O Root of Jesse (Is. 11:1, 10)
O clavis David – O Key of David (Is. 22:22)
O oriens – O Dayspring (see Is. 9:2)
O rex gentium – O King of Nations (see Is. 2:4)
O Emmanuel – O God-is-with-us (Is. 7:14)

Reading backward from Christmas Eve, the first letters of the titles spell out the Latin phrase ero cras – "I will be [here] tomorrow!"

The verses of the classic Advent hymn (carol?) "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel/O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" are drawn from the O Antiphons, and just the other day I ran across a lovely arrangement by Michael John Trotta that incorporates the "ero cras" acronym in a very neat way (though the on-screen translations in the video are...loose):

Comments

[independence1776]

Merry Christmas!

[ermingarden]

Thank you!

[hhimring]

That is very neat indeed! Thank you for sharing!
(Also, of course, those antiphons are, sort of, the source of the name Earendel...)

[ermingarden]

Glad you enjoyed!
...and how could I have forgotten to mention that?