If we were having Vespers this evening, we would be saying or singing the first of the seven O Antiphons, O Sapientia, just before the Magnificat, today being 17 December, the first day within the octave of Christmas. Tomorrow it's O Adonai. The texts are of twofold importance - the opening of each antiphon is a title for the Messiah, and all are taken from the prophecies of Isaiah. The hymn O come, O come, Emmanuel is a poetic expression of the antiphons.
The sequence was cunningly arranged by the Benedictines, so that the first letter of the second word of each, taken in reverse order, spells out 'Ero cras' (tomorrow I will come).
More on that symbolism here:
We don't make so much of the O Antiphons in the CofE, although we did once add an eighth, O Virgo virginum, to form the acrostic 'Vero cras' (truly, tomorrow), though that one was ditched in 2000 with the publication of Common Worship.
A pity, though, that in translation the acrostic doesn't work any more. Perhaps nobody had noticed.
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