O Rex Gentium

To-day, December the 22nd, we sing at Vespers the following Greater Antiphon, foretelling the great all-reconciling Mission of God the Son, coming as the One more than able to fulfil all the hopes and desires of men, Who shall perfect man whom He made of dust, remoulding Him in His Own image, thus reuniting the sundered clans of earth, both to each other and most of all to God:

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.

O King of the Nations, and the Desired of them, and the Corner Stone, That makest both one: come, and save man, whom of dust thou didst form.

Here are some bases for this prayer in the Bible:

• Quis non timebit te, o Rex gentium? (Jer 10:7a)

• Et movebo omnes gentes, et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus… (Agg 2:8a-b)

• Ipse enim est pax nostra, qui fecit utraque unum, et medium parietem maceriæ solvens, inimicitias in carne sua... (Eph 2:14)

• ...superædificati super fundamentum apostolorum, et prophetarum, ipso summo angulari lapide Christo Jesu... (Eph 2:20)

• salva (occurs 21 times in Vulg.)

• Formavit igitur Dominus Deus hominem de limo terræ… (Gen 2:7a)