What Is This Christmas-Week of Which You Speak?
First things first; we are not late. Yes, I know that, traditionally, the seventh antiphon is prayed on December 23 and that you are not reading this until the 29th (at the earliest), but does that delay hold any real significance? Absolutely not. Yes, the first antiphon, O Wisdom, is meant to be prayed on December 17; and then, each day leading up to Christmas, we are to add another antiphon until we reach Christmas Eve where we pray the last antiphon, O Emmanuel. But tradition is not law. In fact, praying this last antiphon during the week of Christmas makes good sense to me and for three really good reasons. First, the rush leading up to Christmas leaves little time for true contemplation. But then, Christmas is over and we have a short lull before we start to ramp up for New Year’s, a lull that allows us some