Praying the O Antiphons at the Burning Bush
We’re one week from Christmas. Seven days before the coming of the Lord, and the liturgical antiphon for vespers today is “O Adonai.”
Antiphon: O Adonai and leader of Israel, you appeared to Moses in a burning bush and you gave him the Law on Sinai. O come and save us with your mighty power.
“Adonai” is usually translated as the “Lord,” meaning leader. The Lord is the leader of the House of Israel who led the nation out of Egyptian slavery, and it began with the Lord’s appearance to Moses at the burning bush.
Adonai not only appears to Moses in the burning bush but also gives him the Law on Sinai. There, the Lord (Adonai) reveals the Holy Name to Moses, and that name is transliterated to four letters, often referred to as the Tetragrammaton. It is usually translated into English Bibles as “LORD” in all capitals.
At the burning bush the Lord reveals the LORD’s identity.
Today’s antiphon collapses the entire Exodus event, including the giving of the Law — into the incident at the burning bush. Then, it brings it forward — so to speak — to us. We are permitted to meet the one leading us to liberation as we experience the Exodus in the chanting of the antiphon. The burning bush, liberation, and giving of the Law all “happen” as we pray, O Adonai.
The antiphon brings us to the theophany at the burning bush. More correctly, it brings the burning bush into the present, thereby revealing the Holy Name to us. When we pray O Antiphon, we learn to see that every bush is burning, charged with the grandeur of God — as Gerald Manley Hopkins put it in his famous poem “God’s Grandeur.”
When we look closely in our daily events and our relationships, we can find a revelation of the Holy Name of the one leading and liberating us.
In the context of Christian prayer, O Adonai is a prayer offered in eager anticipation for the Feast of the Nativity. We await the revelation of the Lord in an unexpected way. A baby born in a manger to a virgin is every bit as unexpected as a bush in the desert that burns but is not consumed.
The antiphon asks God for salvation, deliverance. Again, for Christians awaiting Christmas, Jesus is the ultimate hope for salvation. When praying O Adonai, Christians profess faith in the one who is about to be born in Bethlehem. But there’s more.
In his first Advent sermon, 14th century German theologian Meister Eckhart draws on the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo to teach that Christ is eternally born in our hearts.
This prayer of salvation expresses deep calling unto deep. The depths of our heart reaches to the depths of God’s; and as the German Dominican said, our depths and God’s depths are one. It’s a mysterious paradox, and it is revealed in the Nativity.
Praying this antiphon leads us to reflect on our lives and relationships. We can ask ourselves: Where do I find burning bushes? What are you praying to be delivered from? What is the name of God being revealed to me?
