A reflection inspired by a recent visit to the Noor Weg Women’s Empowerment Project based at Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, through the lens of the O Antiphons sung in Advent.
O Wisdom.
Knowing
that knowledge is the start but not the end.
Working,
organising, cooking for others.
Each
class, each conversation, a step closer together;
to the
truth you breathed into being in the beginning.
O
Sapientia.
O Lord.
Born on
the wrong side of the wall
and broke
through it.
Arms
stretched across time and place;
welcoming,
protecting, guiding us all to freedom.
O Adonai.
O Root of
Jesse
No papers
to prove it, but
Tamar,
Rahab, Ruth and Uriah are here.
Identity
tags in spray paint.
A true
vine grows from a gap in the concrete. And flourishes.
O Radix
Jesse.
O Key of
David.
We
cherish keys to doors long since been destroyed.
Our
freedom is the one who rose to return.
A key to
a door that is never locked.
This
treasure not our right but our honour to receive; our privilege to share.
O Clavis
David.
O
Dayspring.
The light
in the eyes of those standing in the shadows, their backs to the wall.
“I love
you” the only English they know.
May these
beams of hope rise above the darkness.
O
Oriens.
O King of
the Nations.
Welcomed
by children in a triumphal train;
plastic
trumpets in their lips.
We are
not the King of Peace -
the one
who binds us together.
But we
are His children, not pretenders to the throne.
O Rex
Gentium.
O With Us
Is God.
With us
making marks of protest.
With us
holding on to power.
With us
all, His people.
Be born
in us today.
O
Emmanuel.
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