The Advent antiphons begin at this time. They are mystical phrases that are inserted into the liturgy of evening prayer before and after the Magnificat in the days leading up to Christmas.
They each have their own plainsong – ethereal music that comes to us from somewhere deep inside the mystery of advent.
In St Mary’s we don’t currently have daily evening prayer (our daily offering is in the morning) and so in order to include the antiphons we used them to punctuate the Advent Carol Service a couple of weeks ago.
If you want to see the Antiphons themselves, check out the bookies on this website for Daily Prayer. The one for evening for the last week of Advent is here. (Note that I’ve now corrected the mistake in the magnificat – fear not feat!)
You can check out the text of the antiphons in modern language there. Alternatively, take a look at the Topmost Apple’s webpage today for both text and music to listen to.
I had a go at blogging my way through the antiphons in 2004 and you can still find those posts here.
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