The O Antiphons Explained: The Church’s Hidden Countdown to Christmas (Fr Cristino)

The O Antiphons Explained — the Church’s hidden Advent countdown to Christmas that most Catholics have never been taught.

From December 17–23, the Church secretly proclaims a message in the liturgy that points to the coming of Christ — and it’s hidden in plain sight.

For the final days of Advent, the Church shifts the entire focus of the liturgy toward the imminent arrival of Jesus Christ. Beginning on December 17, Catholics pray the O Antiphons — ancient titles of Christ drawn directly from Scripture — during Evening Prayer and at Mass.

In this episode, Father Cristino reveals how these seven antiphons — O Sapientia, O Adonai, O Radix Jesse, O Clavis David, O Oriens, O Rex Gentium, and O Emmanuel — are intentionally arranged to form a hidden Latin message when read in reverse.

That message?
“Ero cras.” — “Tomorrow, I will come.”

This is not a coincidence. It is a profound example of how the Church’s liturgy quietly teaches theology, Scripture, and longing for Christ — not through explanation, but through prayer itself.

In this conversation, you’ll discover:
• What the O Antiphons are and where they come from
• Why they are prayed only from December 17–23
• How O Come, O Come Emmanuel is rooted in the liturgy
• The hidden Advent message encoded in the antiphons
• Why surrendering to the Church’s liturgical rhythm forms us more deeply than we realize

This episode will change the way you experience Advent — and help you enter Christmas with greater awe, anticipation, and faith.

Transcript

Welcome back, Father Cristino. Thank you, Ken. This is the third Friday of Advent. What do you got for us today? Well, there's only three Fridays this Advent, and so this is our last time to be together during your series. So, I thought, why not reflect upon something fascinating that I don't know how many of your viewers and followers would be aware of. So, you told me this is going to blow my mind. I think it will. I think it will. If you haven't come across this before, I think you'll find this fascinating. Okay. uh beginning on December 17th which is one week leading up to our celebration of Christmas we shift gears particularly in the liturgy and you'll notice it specifically in some in two different places one in the liturgy of the hours and that is when we use an antifon before praying Mary's magnificant every evening in our evening prayer we pray that that beautiful hymn that Mary uh proclaimed at the visitation my soul proclaims the greatness of the lord so there's always an antifon that accompanies it Okay. And we refer to these seven antifons as the O antifons because they all begin with an invocation of Christ under a different title. And then we say oh this and oh that. And you are most familiar with O Emmanuel. This is where we get the hymn Oh come O come Emmanuel from. Okay. Each of the verses of that hymn is dedicated to one of these invocations of Christ under these various titles. And so translated uh into English and and permit me I want to make sure I don't get these wrong. You have sapiencia o sapiencia which is o wisdom. Have o adoni. Adonai is the Hebrew word for lord. You have O radics yes or Jesse the root of Jesse. O clavis Davidid the key of David. Orians which is the like this the rising sun or daybreak daypring. Rex jensium which is the king of the nations. And then finally you have Emmanuel. And we know from scripture that that in Hebrew means God with us. Right. Mhm. So, we have all of these different ways that we invoke Christ in the seven days leading up to Christmas. Now, it's been set to music and so we're very familiar with that hymn. So, if you go to mass, you'll hear that it is the gospel acclamation each of those seven days. And as I said in the liturgy of the hours, it is the antifon before uh the Magnificat. But each of those al although in their own way describing some characteristic about Jesus uh have been specifically arranged uh in order to also create uh a kind of um an acronym if you will. If you take the first letter in Latin of each of them going backwards. So reading from Emmanuel to sapiencia you'll see two words that are formed from out of that aeroc cross which in Latin means tomorrow I will come. And so the whole point of this hymn is meant to focus our attention towards the imminent arrival of Christ. and that the entire liturgy of the church in a hidden and mystical way is trying to reveal this message to us that Christ is coming and all of these ways that we call upon him and invoke him is meant to draw us deeper and deeper into this longing for us to be united with him which is what we mean to celebrate every year at Christmas. So today uh December the 19th we see this invocation the root of Jesse uh which is a beautiful invocation because it reminds us that Jesus has this human lineage right he is fully man uh but that in fulfilling the tree of Jesse we have the culmination of what all of the prophets had prophesied we have this Messiah who will be sent to us from God and so it's a signed to us of Jesus's humanity and his divinity. That he has a human lineage, but that human lineage has been fulfilled in him being for us the Messiah that all of the prophets hoped and longed for. So, as we sing throughout this the remainder of these days of Advent, that hymn, O Come O Come Emanuel, I hope that we can keep in mind this longing and this building up this intensifying of us calling out to Jesus and all of these different names and by these different titles that we are waiting for him. And then his response back to us is, "Tomorrow I will come." Wow. Did not know that. So, I told you I would blow your mind. What a depth to the liturgy that we experience, isn't it? And that's why I thought it was really important for us to just briefly reflect upon that and and realize that the church has put so much thought into the manner in which we pray and worship God that when we abandon ourselves to the liturgy as she has been designed for us, as she has been handed to us, uh we are in a position to receive so much more than we could ever imagine. Uh because we're not just merely praying. We're not just following the rubrics. We're being led through an experience of being brought into the sacred mystery. And that's why that's what we call the mass, the sacred mysteries. And so when we discover this little intricacy like arrow cross reading Okamok Emanuel backwards, we see, wow, there's a lot of thought and planning that has been put into mapping out the way in which we worship. Yes. And it should just instill awe in us and a desire to abandon ourselves to that. Wow. Thank you for sharing. My pleasure. And thank you for participating in this Advent series. I hope you've had a blessed Advent, Ken, and I pray that your family will have an even more blessed Christmas. Thank you so much. Thank you.