NOVEMBER 28
We have just finished the final draft of the Advent Lessons and Carols service for December 17. I hope everyone will make an effort to come and support the choir and our musicians, as they always do an excellent job. Mike Dupre has chosen a number of wonderful anthems and carols for the choir, and Kathy Crosier’s organ selections by Brahms and Bach will be sublime. As in the past, the service ends with a festive Advent Party, so bring your favorite dish to share and make some time to relax and have fun.
Over the course of the service there are seven readings, beginning with the story of the fall of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis, and culminating with the story of the Angel Gabriel bringing glad tidings to the Blessed Virgin Mary. As a postscript, we have a short passage from the Book of Revelation during Benediction invoking Christ to come soon. Others readings are taken from Wisdom, Isaiah, and Daniel, and we also hear the story of the birth of John the Baptist. Anthems and carols are dispersed throughout the liturgy, as are the stanzas of O come, O come, Emmanuel, along with other Advent hymns.
In many ways, Advent Lessons and Carols is similar to the Liturgy of the Word at the Easter Vigil. We hear a variety of scripture passages that illustrate how God has been at work in the world throughout time, and how all of these marvels of God are guiding us into a new truth, whether it is the birth of Jesus Christ or his resurrection from the dead.
This year we are celebrating Advent Lessons and Carols on the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, when the Introit at the mass invites us to rejoice with Jerusalem. On this Sunday flowers return to the altars, and our focus shifts to Bethlehem and the birth of the Messiah. The rose candle of the Advent wreath is lit, and we become an expectant family, increasingly excited about the good news unfolding before us.
But before we celebrate Advent Lessons and Carols, on Friday December 8 we have the ancient feast of Mary’s conception. Since the 7th Century this day has been celebrated by the Eastern Churches, and by the 8th century it was being celebrated in the West in places such as Ireland and England. On December 8 at 6:30 pm we gather for a Solemn Mass followed by dinner in the Parish Hall.
On this day we celebrate how Mary was singularly chosen by God to bear the Christ, and how the fall that began with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden shall begin to be reversed in the life of Mary. As God originally created the world to be filled with God’s goodness, God comes again to rescue us from our fallen state, beginning with the life of Mary. Eva becomes Ave - Eve becomes, “Hail Mary, full of grace!”
On this day at the evening solemn mass, we will sing popular and rousing Marian hymns. The dinner after the service is being celebrated in honor of our late vestryman, Derrick Shimabukuro, who died suddenly earlier this year. He had an infectious love for the Blessed Mother, always rousing parishioners from laziness to come join the Rosary and other Anglo-Catholic devotions. He loved to host high mass receptions, so it is fitting that we gather in his honor on a Marian feast while enjoying delicious food and good friends.
Father Paul Lillie +
