Modern:
O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.
Traditional:
O King of nations and their desired one, Cornerstone who binds two into one--come and save man whom you fashioned from the slime of the earth.
This is our two-for-one O Antiphon: King and Keystone.
If anyone out there knows the Latin, check that word for dust/slime. Personally, I'd rather be fashioned from dust.
Probably no one is spending much time pondering the ins and outs of praying the Divine Office this week. What with Christmas preparations, especially for us females, we're lucky there's time to pray the Hours at all, let alone meditate on it's structure, regulations, and history. But if you are enough of a mental multi-tasker to do this, then fire away, and I will scrape the cookie or nut-bread dough off my hands and answer!
