The Antiphons of Embryogenesis

by Sarah Burchart

Honorable Mention, Poetry, Create | Encounter 2025

O Wisdom, ordering the end of potential and the beginning of fusion and life,

Come and teach us Your presence even as a single-celled zygote.

O Adonai, whose cleavage flourishes a vibrant flame

yet stays steady like the burning bush,

Come and lead love to mature in us.

O Root of Jesse, whose junctions compact into the ensign of humankind,

Come and deliver us from our vain pilgrimage to decay.

O Key of David, whose scepter differentiates and appoints each cell to its purpose,

Come and liberate those graded and found wanting,

open the gates for those shut in stasis.

O Dayspring, whose inner cavity is not formless and void but an enlightened axis of symmetry,

Come and share Your shining splendor.

O King of the Nations, whose hatching prepares the next steps in Your pilgrimage for us,

Come and preserve the cornerstone of unity between mother and child.

O Emmanuel, anointed to implant in this stable place before reaching the stable of Bethlehem,

Come and plant in our hearts the hope of Your salvation.

Artist Statement:

The biblical narratives read by Christians during the Advent and Christmas seasons always lead me to reflect on how Jesus Christ’s assumption of human nature did not begin at birth, but is recognized even while He was in the Virgin Mary’s womb as an embryo (Luke 1:39-45). While doing some research into the earliest stages of embryonic development, I was struck by a visual chart outlining the activities of the first seven days of embryogenesis. My mind quickly drew parallels to the “O Antiphons,” those poetic chants reflecting on the titles of Christ traditionally used on the last seven days of Advent (and further popularized by the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”). This poem seeks to reimagine those roles and their connotations presented in the O Antiphons with the processes of fertilization, cleavage, compaction, differentiation, cavitation, zona hatching, and implantation – and how Christ identified with us even through the overlooked earliest days of human gestation.