The O antiphon for the week
is:
O ADONAI, and Leader of the
house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flames of the bush and gave him
the Law on Sinai:
Come, and with your outstretched arm redeem us.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Adonai is an odd word for liturgical use, at least for Christians. A form of it appears sparingly in the Hebrew Bible,
but it is rare. More common is the title
for God’s use in Jewish liturgy. As pronouncing
the name YHWH (Yahweh?) came to be forbidden, substitutes were offered when the
readings called for the word to be said aloud.
Adonai or less frequently HaShem ("The Name") were employed as
replacements.
In modern Christian hymnody, the term Adonai
is used along with a long list of Hebrew names and titles in the song El Shaddai, written by Michael J. Card & John W
Thompson and popularized in the 1982 release by Amy Grant.
As the antiphon indicates, the title Adonai
is associated with the stories of God’s liberation of the Hebrews from slavery
in Egypt and issuing the Covenant Law at Sinai.
No comments:
Post a Comment