O Oriens

Fr. Mark Kriby of Vultus Christi blog has this article on the O Antiphon "Oriens" and showed its significance in the orientation of Christian Prayer. He wrote:

From the earliest times, Christians at prayer have turned towards the East.
Christ is the Dayspring, the rising sun who dawns upon us from high “to give
light to those in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:9). The eastward
orientation of churches and altars is a way of expressing the great cry of every
Eucharist: “Let our hearts be lifted high. We hold them towards the Lord.”

Ad Orientem

When, in the celebration of the liturgy, the priest
faces the “liturgical east,” he is “guiding the people in pilgrimage towards the
Kingdom” and with them, keeping watch for the return of the Lord. “This Jesus,
who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him
go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Pope Benedict XVI has reminded us that a powerful
witness is given in the prayer of a priest and people who stand together facing
eastward and giving voice to the same hope. “The Spirit and the Bride say,
'Come.’ And let him who hears say, 'Come’” (Revelation 22:17).

The
message of the Holy Father at Heiligenkreuz Abbey in September 2007 was clear
and compelling:

In all our efforts on behalf of the liturgy, the
determining factor must always be our looking to God. We stand before God - he
speaks to us and we speak to him. Whenever in our thinking we are only concerned
about making the liturgy attractive, interesting and beautiful, the battle is
already lost. Either it is Opus Dei, with God as its specific subject, or it is
not. In the light of this, I ask you to celebrate the sacred liturgy with your
gaze fixed on God within the communion of saints, the living Church of every
time and place, so that it will truly be an expression of the sublime beauty of
the God who has called men and women to be his friends.

Follow the link: O Oriens