O Antiphons for the Marian New Year
New Beginnings
“Nunc coepi!” cries out St. Josemaria Escriva, ” now I begin!” “This,” he writes, “is the cry of a soul in love which, at every moment, whether it has been faithful or lacking in generosity, renews its desire to serve — to love! — our God with a wholehearted loyalty” (The Furrow, 161).
For the monk, every minute is a new beginning. Is not one of the three monastic vows conversion of manners? Is not the entire monastic life a conversatio, a continued conversion to the monastic way of life?
To those long familiar with the monastic way of life, therefore, new beginnings are a familiar enough idea. They are daily life. The monk is forever crying out in confidence: Delicta juventutis meae, et ignorantias meas, ne memineris. The misdeeds of my youth — even those of a moment ago — remember Thou not (Ps. 24:7). It is as a monk once answered someone who asked what the monks do: “We fall down and we get up; we fall down and we get up; we fall down again, and we get up again.”
Thus the monk’s day, his week, his month, and his year is marked with new beginnings. Nunc coepi!
The Many New Years
The New Year is a “new beginning” of this sort. New Year’s resolutions abound; the mistakes of the past year are put in the past, and, perhaps, one dares to allow oneself to feel that — at last! — I have now begun. Nunc coepi!
But, as most Catholics know, it is not only the secular New Year that marks such a beginning. The first Sunday of Advent is hailed by many as a new beginning, a preparation for Christmas on which all things are made new. Lent too marks such a beginning. Septuagesima Sunday is a sort of liturgical New Year, for it is on this Sunday that the Latin Church begins the Scriptures anew with the book of Genesis and the story of Creation. This great preparation for Easter heralds also the Lenten resolutions and the cleansing of the soul for the great feast of our redemption.
March 25th is also a New Year of sorts. It is the traditional date of the Crucifixion, as of the Annunciation, and of the Creation of the world (and for Tolkien fans, not coincidentally, the day of the destruction of the Ring). Or we might include March 1st, the ancient Roman New Year that even some Christians observed (and thus September means “the seventh” and not “the ninth” month). Some, perhaps, would choose other feasts, such as the Nativity of the Lord, on December 25.
September as the New Year
But one very ancient tradition marks the beginning of the year in September. This tradition goes all the way back to biblical times and traces of it are found in the Sacred Scriptures. Because of its relation to the harvest, it is a sort of natural annual rebirth. In much of the world, September marks the end of summer and the beginning of the academic year. The Jewish New Year too is the seventh month (the first day of Tisrei, the lunar month that corresponds to September).
In the Eastern Catholic Churches, September 1st (called “the beginning of the Indiction”) is the first day of the liturgical calendar. It is believed to be the day of the creation of the world in the East (the West prefers March 25), and also the day that commemorates when Christ entered the synagogue to proclaim: “The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me” (Lk 4:16-22; Is. 61:1-2).
Yet there is a more important reason why September might be considered the New Year. It is on September 8th that the Universal Church celebrates the Nativity of Our Lady. Was her birth not the first glimpse of the heavenly light of salvation?
Is not September, then, a Marian New Year?
The Reading of the Holy Rule
We have mentioned January 1st and September 1st as candidates for the New Year. Is it not, then, propitious that these are two of the dates when Benedictine Monasteries begin afresh the reading of the Holy Rule with the first words of the Prologue, Ausculta, Fili, “Hearken, o son…”? In ever Benedictine Monastery it is a new beginning, like a renewal of a monk’s monastic consecration.
The Marian O Antiphons
To celebrate this time of New Year, Vultus Christi will bring you each day until the Nativity of Our Lady a Marian O Antiphon. Like the O Antiphons for Christmas, the Marian O Antiphons are meant to be said in conjunction with the evening recitation of the Magnificat. We will give each one with the antiphon, a versicle, a collect, and a short commentary.
August 31, O Aurora!
| ANT. O Aurora valde rutilans mane absque nubibus! Quando apparebis consurgens pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol? O Virgo formosissima! Veni jam, noli tardare, et ostende lumen tuum sedentibus in tenebris et in umbra mortis. | ANT. O Dawn shimmering greatly in the morning without clouds! When shalt thou appear, arising, fair as the moon, elect as the son? O Virgin most beautiful! Come now! Tarry not, and show thy light to those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. |
| ℣. Ecce tenebræ operiunt terram. ℟. Et caligo populos. |
℣. Behold, darkness covers the earth. ℟. And thick darkness the peoples. |
| Oremus. Dignare, Domine, corda nostra benedictionibus gratiæ tuæ prævenire ; ut cujus Nativitatem expectamus, Sanctissimæ Genitrici tuæ digne placere possimus. Qui vivis et regnas in sæcula sæculorum. Amen. |
Let us pray. Deign, O Lord, to precede our hearts with the blessings of Thy grace that we may be able to please worthily Thy most holy Mother, whose nativity we are awaiting. Thou Who livest and reignest forever and ever. Amen. |
Mary is the Dawn
In the Antiphon for December 21, Jesus is called the Sun of Justice, the Rising Star, the Splendor of Eternal Light. Mary is none of these by nature. As St. Louis de Montfort says, Mary is by nature less than an atom. She is not by nature the sun, nor the splendor of eternal light. Yet God so willed her to have the radiance of His Divine Light that, in His plan, we all receive the Light through her.
She is the dawn that heralds the rising of the Light. She is the sign that the Sun of Justice shall soon arise. In her rising, Light is seen by the whole world, hope is stirred, creation comes alive. Hers is the face that has been longed for since Adam heard the words addressed to the ancient Serpent, “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed” (Gn 3:15). It is the face that, for nine months until her nativity, was hidden in the womb of Anna, but now is about to be revealed.
The enmity between the woman and the serpent has played itself out through the centuries. We have caught glimpses of the promised woman through Deborah, Esther, Judith and so on. They have not been the Woman, and yet they have served to to increase our longing for the advent of the woman who shall crush the serpent’s head.
In eight days, she shall arise. Salvation is coming.
The Grace to Please
The Church knows that without her Lord she can do nothing (see Jn 15:5), so she is accustomed to pray for the Lord to go before her through inspiring her actions, and to follow her with His assistance, as she prays in the famous collect Actiones Nostras. Thus she precedes the great feasts with vigils and fasts, and even whole seasons of preparation, that she may have the grace to celebrate the feast. Afterwards, she prolongs the feast with octaves, or even entire liturgical seasons.
In this collect for the expectation of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a very human desire is expressed. Since we wish to please our mother on her birthday, we are inspired with the impulse to pray this may be so.
Let us pray for this grace as we approach the feast.
