O Antiphons

It will come as no shock to those that know me when I say that I think crafting is therapeutic.  I love sitting down to create something, especially for someone else.

I have found over the years that time taken while making crafts can also be prayerful.  This is especially true when doing "mindless" things like crocheting.  However, every now and then I find myself inspired to make something that actually seems to be a prayer itself.  That was this case with a book I made about the O Antiphons last year.  I made it during the Christmas season last year after getting some fun new scrapbooking materials (like baker's twine from Anita and number tape from Steph & Steve).  I love the O Antiphons, and they became the inspiration for a mini prayer book.  I loved choosing verses to include, thinking about images that would represent the different days, and coordinating a layout that emphasized the waiting that the Church remembers during the seven days before Christmas.  (You can read about the O Antiphons here and here and here.)

The carrying themes for the book are the song O Come, O Come Emmanuel, the verse "I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him." (~Isaiah 8:17), and the prayer "How Long, O Lord?" which is from Psalm 35:17.  These ideas carried me through the book, and I am very much looking forward to using the pages to aid in my prayer during this last week of preparation before Christmas.  My book will be sitting out near my Advent Wreath, but I though I'd share it with you, too.  So today, here are a few of the intro pages.  Each day following, I will have the pages from that O Antiphon posted.  I hope that they aid your prayer and remind you of the waiting before the birth of Christ, the waiting for this Christmas, and the waiting for him to come again.