Do they sing "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel at your parish in Advent?

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They haven’t been singing it at my parish for the last couple of years, and I miss it.
 
Yes, we had this on Sunday as part of our Ordinariate Advent Lessons and Carols Service.
 
Yes, Entrance hymn.

Happy Advent everyone.

Blessings,
Stephie
 
Usually at communion time…but not 1st Sunday… .I hope this weekend
 
Yes! 🙂
I was very happy to hear it last Sunday. We sing it every Advent.
 
Do you all know the ‘Great O’s’? They are the 7 Antiphons to the Magnificat during Vespers, the last week before Christmas Eve. It goes way back, perhaps 6th or 7th century, and of course coming out of the monastic tradition.

The O’s are:

December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Dayspring)
December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)

And of course that is where the hymn ‘O Come, O Come Emanuel’ is derived. If you haven’t heard the Great O’s chanted, it is stunningly beautiful. It send chills up and down me.

I may be able to find a recording of just one of the antiphons for you to listen to. Here it is. So the antiphon comes before the Magnificat and then after, as, of course, they all do. Enjoy.

youtube.com/watch?v=pWR8yPn_wGY
 
We might hear it once – the choir seems to prefer O Come Devine Messiah. Therefore, when the K of C had their Light up for Christmas on Tuesday and they were looking for a hymn to sing my friend and I made sure it was O Come, O Come Emmanuel!
 
It was the entrance hymn for the first Mass of Advent in my parish.

I was the MC and could barely hold back tears as we processed in. I love that hymn so much.

-Tim-
 
I know that sometimes music directors save “O Come O Come Emmanuel” for closer to the end of Advent, when the “O antiphons” actually occur in the liturgical year (week before Christmas). So maybe your director is saving it?
Or maybe your church uses some hymnal that doesn’t have it?
Or maybe someone in your church doesn’t like Gregorian chant?
 
They sing it at my parish, but not every Sunday. They always sing it in Latin (Veni, Veni Emmanuel).
 
At the risk of sounding like the world’s biggest curmudgeon, my answer is yes, we sing it. Every single Sunday during Advent. Over and over and over again until I just want to scream. I used to like it. Now I just cringe.
 
IrishAm said:
At the risk of sounding like the world’s biggest curmudgeon, my answer is yes, we sing it. Every single Sunday during Advent. Over and over and over again until I just want to scream. I used to like it. Now I just cringe.
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No, I totally understand. Anyone can get sick of any song or hymn. Believe me, it could be worse.

In my parish, the director often chooses hymns around a theme. So for instance, last Sunday it was the “O” Antiphons, and so we sang “O Come, O Come” and “Christ, Circle Round Us” and “My Soul in Stillness Waits”. So essentially we sang the same thing three times during the liturgy. :eek:

The other ones that come to mind are “Ubi Caritas” when for Communion we sang both the Gregorian chant setting and the modern Hurd setting; and whenever Psalm 23 is featured, we break out “Shepherd Me, O God” and “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” in addition to the responsorial psalm setting in Respond and Acclaim.
 
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