Many thanks to everyone who helped make our Advent Lessons and Carols service such a success last Saturday evening. The choir did an outstanding job, and I am grateful for the lectors, acolytes, and kitchen crew. The party following the service was also a great success. Every day this week I have continued to hear accolades from the congregation about how wonderful the service was. Just as amazing was the fact that on Sunday morning the choir performed different choral literature at high mass, so if you attended Lessons and Carols and High Mass, as most of you did, you enjoyed even more Advent-themed music.
This coming Sunday is another busy weekend at St. Mark's. At the High Mass Aloha Hour, the CEO of Family Promise, Ryan Catalani, will be with us to explain the important work Family Promise does for houseless families with children. As well, this Sunday the wrapped gifts for Responsive Caregivers are due. As of this last Sunday, every gift had been chosen. Thank you to everyone who signed up to purchase a gift. This is the first year that every gift has a donor.
This Sunday Evensong and Benediction resumes at 4:00 pm. As Christmas Day and New Year's Day are Sundays this year, Vespers will not be sung on those Sundays, but will resume again in January. This evening service of chant, psalmody, incense, readings, and adoration is a blessed alternative to the noise of our world, reorienting our lives to God. It may be impractical for some to return to church for Vespers after one's Sunday mass obligation, but I do hope everyone will try to attend Sunday Vespers at least once a month. You will find the discipline to be worth it.
Even though we will not have Vespers and Benediction on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, we will have mass. I have been confused by the online discourse debating whether churches should be open on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, since these feasts are on Sundays this year. Some churches are cancelling church altogether on these days which I find astonishing. The reasoning is that if you do not typically have worship on Christmas Day, (only on Christmas Eve), and if Christmas falls on a Sunday, then Sunday worship is cancelled. I do not understand why the church cannot be open for at least one service on Christmas Day when this feast falls on a Sunday. This year please join us for the Midnight Mass beginning at 11:00 pm on Christmas Eve, and then join us for the Christmas Day mass at 10:30 am. Not only shall we keep Christ in Christmas, but we will also keep the mass in Christmas.
Father Paul Lillie +
