Opening Prayer:
O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge!
From the hymn: O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Sapientia – Wisdom
O Come, Thou Wisdom, from on high,
and order all things far and nigh;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Wisdom’s Part in Creation Book of Proverbs. Ch. 8
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—
when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
Reflection by Father Michael Coutts
O Wisdom
The first of the O-Antiphons starts at the beginning of creation and the last will take us to the door of the manger in Bethlehem. The first Antiphon is Wisdom; O SAPIENTIA.
God’s Wisdom is seen at various places in the Old and New Testament. The Scripture text for this antiphon is Isaiah 11. If the words of Isaiah seem familiar, it is because Jesus uses this text to describe his mission. We find it in Luke 4, where Jesus says the Spirit of the Lord has anointed him.
Isaiah 11:2-3
2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;
At the beginning of creation there was darkness over the waters. There was chaos. Today, we notice order in the Universe. The Wisdom of the Eternal Word created this Order and harmony.
Wisdom 8:1
She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well.
The Eternal Word became flesh and He pitched his tent in our midst. The Letter to the Philippians Ch.2 tells us that although the Word was equal with God, he did not presume on this privilege. He emptied himself and took the form of a slave and became like us in all things.
This Wisdom has both a divine and a human face. The divine: this title is used to describe God. The human face of wisdom is that it is one of the deepest human desires.
Wisdom is more than knowledge, which we can obtain through books and by study.
Wisdom is more than understanding, which we can get by life experience.
But with Wisdom, we are encouraged to study and get knowledge. With Wisdom, we learn from life experiences and get understanding of how to live and move and have our being – which is in and with Jesus Christ.
Wisdom is a gift that is given to us as our relationship with God deepens. St. John tells us that in the prologue of his Gospel. He tells us that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Those that received the Word of God, to them was given the power to become children of God.
Examen: Is there any area in your life that Wisdom would help? – relationship, budget, career, spiritual growth. Ask God to teach and guide you in this area.
