O Emmanuel for whom we wait in joyful expectation

With this final installment, I don't mind saying that I am ready for the O Antiphons to take a year long hiatus!

UPDATE:Next year's preparations for the Nativity of the Lord here on Καθολικός διάκονος will have a distinctively and unapologetic Eastern flavor. I am convinced that until a penitential dimension of this sacred time is recovered in the Western tradition it will continue to seem to me more than a bit faux and forced. I was greatly impressed with the beginning of Peter Hitchens' Advent Message that appeared on his Mail on Sunday blog:

"I shall not be posting - apart from my Mail on Sunday column - until some days after the Feast of the Nativity (commonly called Christmas Day). In fact I doubt if I shall be posting until after the Holy Innocents’ Day, on which I hope as many of you as possible will recall with sorrow the continuing massacre of innocent unborn babies, our society’s greatest and deepest shame, and the one of which it most hates to be reminded.

"As it’s not yet Christmas, but still the penitential season of Advent, I’ll save any Christmas greetings for when the twelve days have actually begun."

As I often do, I thank Mr. Hitchens for his concise lucidity. For those who are new readers and unversed in the glorious liturgical feasts we celebrate during the first week of the Christmas season, stay tuned.

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,
exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster