Limo Formasti

Latin:

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

O King of the nations, and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save the human race,
which you fashioned from clay.


Two thoughts as we approach tonight's meditation. Firstly, I remember my old prayer book--I mean it was OLD--full of all the Catholic self abasement one could long for, and in the O Antiphon was translated thusly:


O King of the nations, and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save Man,
whom you fashioned from the slime of the earth.


I will take the straightforward translation Google gives me


King of the Nations, and their desire;
keystone, who makes both peoples one,
Come and save mankind;
whom you shaped from the mud.

Because this is the one that tells me the most about this verse. This isn't really the place to dwell on kingship except to say all this time we have heard of the Root and Shoot of Jesse, the King of Judah, the King of Israel.Now we chant to the ruler over all, not simply the ruler over a few people and a few things, but the overarching ruler over everything. This is an idea that seems to Christian in many Craft circles, but I'll accept it. Without dwelling on it too long I want to look at what this King has come to do. He functions as the cornerstone which makes the two peoples into one, that's an important point because the question next is what two peoples. In the language of early Christianity and Judaism for that matter it is the people who are Jews and the people who are not. But, even though Christians didn't trouble to think about it, it should have also meant Christians and whoever was not Christian. The idea of two peoples always includes those who are out and those who i think are in, Those who are occultist, and those who are not, those who are magical and those who are not, those who are witches and those who are not. It would be ashamed to get stuck on the nature of God/Goddess , Kingship and forget the central message is that the energy of god we call on at this moment is the energy that purifies us from the us them mentality and heals these old wounds, refuses to be boxed into one camp..

This antiphon is a call to the God who made us to remember us and come back again. To really bring us to life. The image is the story of Adam. We are not simply being told that we are made of mud, but remember that in several ancient stories human beings were fashioned, but did not possess full life until God himself had breathed into him. And so wait to be not only saved, but recreated, re inspired, born again.

Even while this holy coming is the desire of nations, the nations do not seem to desire this divine visitation. We want to be real and alive, but we still play in the mud with the things close at hand, afraid of the change that could come.