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Dare I also repost the following section from the archives on the customs surrounding the singing of the Great Os : Tim Subject: The O Antiphons From: Bro. Thomas Sullivan, O.S.B. ([log in to unmask]) Date: Mon 29 Dec 1997 - 17:10:29 GMT Recently I have been in contact with Julia Bolton Holloway about the O Antiphons and sent her a chapter conference I gave to the monastic community on their history. She suggested that it may be of interest to the rest of the discussion list and so I am posting it. It is not footnoted, however. If anyone should want the sources, I'll try to reconstruct the sources upon which my conference is based. Thomas Sullivan, OSB ........... CUSTOMS SURROUNDING THE SINGING OF THE GREAT Os 11. In the medieval church, those occasions when anything unusual was said or done in choir frequently turned into something like festivals. It is not surprising then that partly through the influence of the antiphons themselves and partly no doubt through a sense of bustle at the approach of Christmas, this anticipatory week seems almost to have been kept as a festal week, a sort of inverted octave. 12. In parts of Germany, for example, it was the custom to illuminate the antiphon for the day very beautifully on a separate piece of parchment and to expose it to view upon the great lectern in the center of the choir, as we do with the Christmas book here at Conception. In most churches, provision was made for the special ringing of bells at Vespers on these days: they were rung as if on a feastday or the heaviest bell was used. We at Conception ring a bell all through the Magnificat. Sometimes the antiphon was doubled, that is, sung after each verse or couplet. 12. But the most interesting of all observances for the great antiphons were the pomp and circumstance which almost everywhere and especially in the monasteries, were attached to the entoning of them. The entoning of antiphons on feast days was always reserved to the abbot or other dignitaries of the chapter and this was particularly true of the O antiphons. The right of entoning one of the O antiphons was jealously limited by immemorial custom to certain higher officers in the community and each of these great functionaries had his own appropriate antiphon. In most monasteries, the antiphon O Sapientia (O Wisdom) was reserved to the abbot and O Adonai to the prior. Some antiphons were entoned by the obedientiary or functionary most closely associated with the theme of the antiphon: O Radix Jesse was reserved to the gardener, O Clavis David to the cellarer whose duty it was to keep things under lock and key, and O Rex Gentium to the infirmarian, since the antiphon contained the clause, "Come and save (or heal) man whom you have formed out of clay." At Conception, the dean of studies or the librarian sometimes presented the Christmas book to the abbot for entoning "O Sapientia" and the groundskeeper for the antiphon "O Radix Jesse." 13. Moreover from this custom of making much of the privilege of entoning the great antiphons a curious development resulted. It seems to have been regarded as becoming that the high functionary so favored should mark his sense of the honor done him by standing for a treat for the community for "making or keeping his O" (faciendo suum O). The account rolls (the equivalent of our print-outs) of the various departments record the expenses for this haustus or treat, frequently beer, fish, spices, and almonds. It is surprising that this party-like spirit should prevail over the fasting days of Advent; probably the whole system may be best explained as a lingering survival of that spirit of joy and expectation which was a prominent though not a unique feature in the Advent liturgy of the early centuries. CONCLUSION 14. In sum then, we begin the celebration of the great Os in two weeks, a celebration of the letter O--the letter of the alphabet that most reminds us of breakfast cereal, inner tubes, doughnuts, hula hoops, no hitters, and Advent. The letter O simply tells us that we're talking to someone. It's like saying "Hey, you," only more politely. But O reminds us of much more. It makes us think of something having no beginning or end. It resembles the shape of our mouth and the sound we make when we face a mystery we cannot fully comprehend. Thomas Sullivan, OSB 3 December 1996