Keep your O! O Wisdom.

“O Wisdom, the living Word, you embrace all creation, you that have come forth from the Most High and ordered all things mightily but gently: Come, Lord, O come to teach us your way of prudence.” —Magnificat antiphon for December 17

For your meditation this day. From the monks of Saint John’s Abbey:

In the Mediterranean world, wisdom was the art and science of managing people. Wisdom brought order to society and interaction with one another. Israel saw that the search of wisdom was ultimately the search for the wisdom of God.

In this O antiphon, wisdom is living and active. Wisdom guides the order of the universe. Wisdom instills in us the prudence we need to be like God, who creates with power and docility.

As we await the coming of Christ at Christmas, Saint Paul reminds us that Jesus is our wisdom. He said, “It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption …” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Through God’s wisdom, the Cross has become the hidden power of God. The Cross transposed the world so that the fools shame the wise in the revelation of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:18-30).

Come, O Wisdom, do not delay. Give order to our lives and teach us how to act in prudence. Amen.