God With Us

“Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel To free your captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here Until the son of God appear
Rejoice, rejoice, oh Israel To you shall come Emmanuel

Veni, veni Emmanuel Captivum solve Israel
Qui gemit in exilio Privates Dei Filio

Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel
Gaude, gaude Gaude, gaude
Gaude, gaude Gaude, gaude

Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel
Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel”

“Enya: There’re certain songs that capture different times of winter. ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ is an advent Christmas carol.
Roma Ryan: It’s a piece particually Enya and myself have always loved. And we thought if we were doing carols, if we were including carols, why not to pick the ones we love the best.
Enya: I was introduced to it at boarding school, when I was singing in the school choir. Very beautiful piece. I wanted to do a rendering of my own to this very, very classic, very, very old carol.”

“The pre-history of the text stretches back to the origins of the O Antiphons themselves, which were in existence by, at the latest, the eighth century. However, to speak meaningfully of the text of the hymn per se, they would need to be paraphrased in strophic, metrical form. It is certainly within the realm of possibility that efforts along those lines could have been made quite early; we know, for instance, that they were paraphrased extensively by the English poet Cynewulf in a poem written before the year 800.

However, despite popular imagination of an early origin for "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," the hymn's history is first substantiated only much later. While "O come, O come, Emmanuel" is often linked with the 12th century, the earliest surviving evidence of the hymn's text is in the seventh edition of Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, which was published in Cologne in 1710. That hymnal was a major force in the history of German church music: first assembled by Jesuit hymnographer Johannes Heringsdorf in 1610 and receiving numerous revised editions through 1868, it achieved enormous impact due to its use in Jesuit schools.” ~ Wikipedia

Immanuel (Hebrew: עִמָּנוּאֵל‬ meaning, "God with us"; also romanized Emmanuel, Imanu'el) is a Hebrew name which appears in the Book of Isaiah as a sign that God will protect the House of David.

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

Immanuel … means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23 NIV